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The House of Representatives on Thursday took a major step towards reviving Nigeria’s moribund coal industry with a public hearing on a bill seeking to repeal the Nigerian Coal Corporation Act, Cap. 95, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, and replace it with the Nigerian Coal Development Commission.
The bill, titled “A Bill for an Act to Repeal the Nigerian Coal Corporation Act and Enact the Nigerian Coal Development Commission Enugu and for Related Matters (HB.667),” is sponsored by Chimaobi Atu (APC, Enugu).
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The bill had scaled second reading in March and was thereafter committed to the Committee on Solid Minerals Development for further legislative action.
Speaking at the hearing, Mr Atu noted that the creation of a new commission was crucial to reviving the country’s once-thriving coal industry, which provided substantial revenue before and after independence but has since collapsed.
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“The Nigerian Coal Industry, which provided a chunk of the country’s revenue before and after independence, is now moribund and there is a need to revive it. This bill, when passed into law, will also end illegal coal mining activities in the country,” he said.
He noted that the timing of the legislation aligns with Nigeria’s renewed international partnerships, pointing to President Bola Tinubu’s recent signing of nine bilateral agreements with Brazil, one of which focused on coal’s role in science and power.
According to Mr Atu, Nigeria’s coal deposits are estimated at 2.8 billion metric tons, concentrated mainly in Enugu, Kogi, and Benue states.
He noted that “clean coal” from these regions is particularly vital for steel production and could catalyse industrial and manufacturing revival.
Stakeholders back bill
At the public hearing, organised by the House Committee on Solid Minerals Development, stakeholders unanimously supported the bill, describing the Nigerian Coal Corporation as obsolete and incapable of meeting modern challenges.
Chibuokem Kenechukwu, managing director of RockThermal Ltd, said the existing corporation had failed to regulate the sector, paving the way for unregulated and illegal mining across Enugu, Benue, and Kogi states.
He said, “The existing Nigerian Coal Corporation has become largely ineffective and moribund, unable to fulfill its mandate of developing Nigeria’s coal resources. This institutional failure has resulted in illegal mining activities across Enugu, Benue, and Kogi states, conducted without proper oversight, environmental standards, or structured benefit to the nation.
“These unregulated operations not only deprive the government of legitimate revenue but also pose significant environmental and safety risks to local communities,” he added.
Mr Kenechukwu also urged that the commission be headquartered in Enugu, which has the nation’s largest proven coal reserves and existing infrastructure.
“We strongly support establishing the commission headquarters in Enugu State, given that it contains the largest proven coal reserves in Nigeria, has decades of institutional memory and expertise in coal mining, and possesses existing infrastructure and educational resources that support effective coal development oversight,” he said.
Offering an insider’s perspective, Godwin Alo, who represented the Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society (NMGS), recalled starting his career in the coal sector in 1998 at Okaba Mines in Kogi State.
He explained that previous privatisation attempts, managed through the Bureau of Public Enterprises, had failed to attract sustained investment, despite interest from major multinational companies.
He said, “There was a bidding process that attracted some of the world’s biggest mining firms, but somehow that bidding process got installed along the line. If not, that industry even without this commission would have gone ahead and developed.
Mr Alo stressed that the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency (NGSA) remains central to coal development, as the custodian of mineral data dating back to the early 1900s.
Taslim Jimoh, a mining consultant with Dangote Industries Ltd, highlighted the importance of coal to Nigeria’s cement industry, which consumes more than 90 per cent of the country’s current coal output.
“We even take coal from Kogi to as far as Sokoto to power the power plant there. So, such is the importance of coal as an energy alternative for us,” he said.
Mr Jimoh said coal is more than an energy source for cement but a strategic industrial raw material that underpins Nigeria’s construction and infrastructure drive.
Mr Jimoh further noted that several coal assets earlier concessioned by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) were either abandoned or returned by investors who could not manage them, leaving once-productive sites such as the Onyeama and Okpara mines in Enugu State completely flooded and dormant.
Reviving these mines, he stressed, would require significant technical expertise and capital investment, far beyond the capacity of individual operators.
According to him, only a structured federal intervention through a specialised commission can mobilise the scale of resources needed to rehabilitate such strategic but neglected coalfields.
“There are coal deposits that the BPE concessioned and the people who took them over returned them, they couldn’t handle them.
These are the coal in Enugu, Onyeama and Okpara mines which are flooded now. It takes a lot of technical expertise and funding to revive those mines,” he said.
He also highlighted the significance of underground coal reserves, which, unlike open-cast mining, cause minimal environmental disruption and could be mined beneath communities without displacing residents.
For Mr Jimoh, the proposed commission represents more than another regulatory body but a potential driver of Nigeria’s industrialisation agenda.
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Next steps
The Chairperson of the Committee, Gaza Gbefwi, assured participants that all submissions from the hearing would be considered before the committee presents its report for further deliberation.
Why a new commission?
The Nigerian Coal Corporation Act was originally enacted in 1950 to establish the Nigerian Coal Corporation and transfer all government-owned colliery operations to it.
For decades, the corporation oversaw coal exploration and mining, making the mineral one of Nigeria’s most valuable resources before the sector collapsed due to neglect, poor investment, and failed privatisation.
The bill now proposes the establishment of the Nigerian Coal Development Commission, to be headquartered in Enugu, with wide-ranging mandates including:
- Coordinating exploration, mining, development, and utilisation of coal across the country.
- Exploring advanced uses of coal, including its role in producing solar cells and other modern products.
- Ensuring sufficient coal production for electricity generation and steel manufacturing.
- Conducting geological surveys and overseeing new coal discoveries.
- Enforcing strict health, safety, and environmental standards in mining operations.
