Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Development Initiative (PAGMDI), on Thursday, officially presented it first locally mined gold bars to President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
President Buhari on the occasion lamented that Nigeria lost about $3 billion in six years to illegal smuggling of gold.
He pointed out that the improved gold mining operations in the country will generate no fewer than 250,000 jobs and over $500m annually in royalties and taxes to the Federal Government.
President Buhari also reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to establishing gold refineries in Nigeria.
“With the implementation of the PAGDMI scheme which will result in the set-up of accredited gold buying centres across key mining areas, artisanal miners and SMEs engaged in mining will be able to capture the value of their work,” Buhari said on Thursday.
“These operations will help in diversifying our revenue base.”
Buhari said the sale of gold by artisanal miners and SMEs at accredited centers will help the government in realising royalties and taxes from the sale of these assets.
He said these developments will also help in improving our foreign reserves by enabling the Central Bank of Nigeria to increase the amount of gold in its reserves.
The artisanally-mined gold was processed and refined according to the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) standards.
CBN has now purchased the 12.5kg bar of gold at the rate of N268 million for use as part of Nigeria’s external reserves, with a cheque presented a Cheque for that amount to the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Development Initiative
PAGMI is a comprehensive artisanal and small-scale gold mining development programme, launched in 2019 to foster the formalization and integration of artisanal gold mining activities into Nigeria’s legal, economic, and institutional framework.
