Adegbite launches COMEG’s Scale of Fees, says it’ll check quackery
Story from Abah ADAH, Abuja
Declaring open a public presentation ceremony of the proposed bill for review of the Council of Nigerian Mining Engineers & Geoscientists (COMEG) Act and Stakeholders’ Interactive Session held on Tuesday in Abuja, Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Arc. Olamilekan Adegbite, performed the launch of scale of professional fees for professionals in the extractive industry.
The Minister while launching the scale of fees which was prepared by COMEG, said the instrument would enable the profession to be practised properly as well as check the challenges of quackery in the industry.
According to Arc. Adegbite, other professions, like law and architecture, had their own scale of fees, and it was important to have such in the industry.
He said the scale was subjected to several tests before it was approved by the Federal Executive Council in April.
At the event, players in the extractive industry and professionals gathered to finalise work on the bill to make the regulatory agency conform to present realities.
COMEG regulates the activities of professionals in the fields of geology, geophysics, geochemistry, mining engineering, petroleum engineering, metallurgy, hydrology and so on.
Speaking on the COMEG Act, the minister said the bill had looked at the present realities and these have been imputed into the act. He urged the stakeholders to make useful input before the bill is signed into law.
The registrar of COMEG, Prof Zacheus Opafunso, identified COMEG as the top regulatory agency in Nigeria whose task cut across the entire extractive industry.
He said the purpose of the gathering was to produce an Act that will stand the test of time towards making Nigeria a major mining destination in the world.
On her part, the director of Legal Services, Nwamaka Odiri, said the task before the stakeholders was to produce an Act that is responsive to present challenges.
According to him, all stakeholders in the sector were carried along in the process of proposing amendments to the Act, adding that the day’s session afforded representatives of stakeholder groups the chance to study the proposed amendments and make necessary adjustments.
In his speech, the President of Nigeria Mining and Geoscientists Society (NMGS), Charles C.D Alabo, thanked the minister of Mines and Solid Minerals Development, Arc Olamilekan Adegbite for his landmark footprints in the sector.
He noted that the Act the stakeholders were trying to amend was 32 years old and so needed to be updated.
