The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry has told the Federal Government to jettison its plan to ban the activities of miners in the country.

The chamber made the call in a statement titled, “LCCI statement on the proposed nationwide ban on motorcycles and mining activities,” which was signed by its Director-General, Dr Chinyere Almona.

It said the consideration by the National Security Council to impose a nationwide ban on motorcycles and mining activities in the country was acknowledged as a strategy to curb terrorist activities and disconnect them from their sources of funding, according to the government.

According to the statement, the Mining and Solid Minerals Group of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry was concerned about the unintended consequences this ban would have on the mining sector and the business environment.

The statement read in part, “Whilst it can be understood that criminals use motorcycles as means of mobility and escape from the security agencies, it is unacceptable to label the entire Nigerian mining ecosystem as sponsors of banditry and terrorism. This looks like an attempt to blame all legitimate mining operators for the activities of bandits and terrorists operating in Nigeria.

“The Nigerian mining industry employs several thousand in the formal and informal economy of Nigeria. Specifically, the artisanal and small-scale mining ecosystem accounts for at least 90% of the activities in the mining sector; from granite quarrying, limestone mining, to base metals mining, limestone mining for cement production, sand mining, non-metallic industrial inputs for the paint and pharmaceutical industry, to mining of precious metals like gold; as well as gemstones mining.” According to LCCI, duly licensed mining companies should be clearly differentiated and distanced from the activities of bandits and terrorists whom the National Security Council had based their proposal upon.