By John Okeke
Minister of Mines and Steel Development Arc. Olamilekan Adegbite has stated that the award for best in digital innovation among the federal establishments in Nigeria for the year 2022 recently received by the Nigerian Mining Cadastre Office (NMCO) was a result of improved funding by the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
The Minister made the observation in his Abuja office on Monday when the director general (DG), NMCO, Engr Obadiah Simon Nkom, presented the award to him for the ministry.
He said, “We must give kudos to whom it is due because MCO would not have been where it is today if not for the administration of the President Muhammadu Buhari. And I refer to this because the sector for the first time in history is enjoying some funding that it would not have had.
“The ministry had this extra budgetary funding which was given to us out of the natural resources fund. N30 billion was granted sometime in 2017. We also have the World Bank facilitated project, MINDIVER (Mineral Sector Support for Economic Diversification Project), in the ministry as well.
“So with a combination of these two funding, which essentially is from the federal government of President Muhammadu Buhari. It has uplifted the sector to where we are today, where we can celebrate the achievement of MCO.
“So this in essence, is a recognition of the attention the federal government has paid to the sector and we thank the government for that.”
The Minister who expressed delight over the feat achieved by Cadastre office congratulated the DG and the entire staff of the office, describing the experience as a pleasant surprise.
It’s a delight to be here this afternoon. To be celebrating one of our way
He said, “When this award was coming up, and I learnt about the people in the same category with the MCO vying for this, I just virtually congratulated the DG, that well you have tried, at least to have come this far to be one of the top six.
“Because when you are talking about Nigerian Communications Commission, the FIRS, all these are very rich agencies, and I thought they would be very deep in ICT, but it was a pleasant surprise, not because we did not deserve it, but the fact that the organisers recognised not just the fact that the system is in place, but it has been managed in the last one year. So I say congratulations again, to the DG, MCO and his team.”
The Minister who traced the evolution of the MCO’s activities to the analogue era of using polygonal geometry for delineating areas of mining, said what the office now use which makes it a lot easier is the Block Cadastre System that the whole world has now embraced.
“They’ve come a long way from the days of the analog record keeping, analog way of approaching the agency for whatever business you want to do.
“So the fact that today you can transact business with MCO online in real time is a giant leap for the sector. And this has also manifested because MCO is revenue baby. We’ve had quantum leap from the revenue generated by MCO, from the years that I’ve been in charge to the last year 2021 that was reported last.
We’ve had Quantum Leap, at times, doubling the revenue of the previous year in the next year,” Adegbite affirmed.
He however used the opportunity to appeal to the federal government for more funding for the sector, adding.
“This is a sector that is that needs a lot of funds for it to develop. And there is no doubt that mines and steel is the way to go to diversify the economy from the oil and gas dependency. We are at the point now where we’re beginning to get attention internationally for this sector”.
According to the Minister, some of the investments made in the sector in recent years have already started yielding results and there is more to come.
He said the NIMEP project has produced fantastic data results that people are not clamoring for.
“Just recently I approved the sale of data to would be investors, and there are many more that are coming for that. I’ve asked Dr Garba to create a dedicated account for that so that we can render returns to the federal government from that,” he said.
In her welcome address earlier, the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Dr (Mrs) Olawatoyin Akinlade, said the feat achieved by the MCO is part of the ministry’s drive to operate with the highest level of transparency.
“This is part of the drive to improve transparency. We have decided to really key into this area of utilisation and it is a very big project in the ministry and you can see that innovation and ICT expertise will highly improve the transparency in the processes of the MCO. Very soon we will have all our processes automated,” she said.
She enjoin other agencies and directors of the ministry to key into the service improvement agenda of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, particularly in the area of digitalisation and innovation, by developing new ideas that can be used in addressing emerging challenges.
Mrs Akinlade thanked the Minister for his support which, according to her, led to the achievement of the feat by the MCO, while congratulating the DG and his team of workers as well as the entire staff of the ministry.
Speaking earlier, the DG, NMCO, Engr Nkom who expressed gratitude to the Minister for his support all the while said his support and open cheque has contributed a lot to making the office be where it is now.
“Want to humbly respectfully appreciate the Honourable Minister for the support and the open check. He has given let me say selfishly the Nigerian mining cadastre office to be able to now get to the point at which we are today.
He hinted that the MCO had migrated its operations online and will launch it for the public, adding that applications are already being received and process online.
Engr Nkom received the award of Best Digital Innovation in federal government’s 5th .Ng Award category for the year 2022 on behalf of NMCO at an Award Night organised by the Nigerian Internet Registration Association (NIRA).
NIRA, a non- governmental body established by the order of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to manage Nigeria’s country code, presented the award to the best portal of the federal government with excellent user experience which promote innovation and local content development with the .ng domain name.
NMCO, which was nominated by the public and assessed by the Award Jury as fulfilling the criteria for the category, competed with other nominees namely; Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS); Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC); Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC); Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and the National Pension Commission (PENCOM) and emerged winner with the highest number of votes in favour of the Agency.
