The Federal Government and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have agreed to track huge illegal movement of gold from Nigeria to Dubai gold souk.
Mr Olamilekan Adegbite, Minister of Mines and Steel Development (MMSD) disclosed this on Tuesday when he featured as a special guest on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) interview programme, Forum, in Abuja.
According to Adegbite, the Federal Government is currently negotiating a bilateral agreement with the UAE to check every gold entering Dubai from Nigeria.
He noted that a huge quantity of gold was being moved from Nigeria illegally on a daily basis to Dubai through UAE police who, unaware that royalties were not paid on them in Nigeria, allowed them to pass freely.
“The UAE collect their own charges on gold that arrived Dubai airport.
“Nigerian Government has told UAE to ask anyone entering Dubai with Nigerian gold to present certificate of exportation got from Nigeria before allowing them to pass.
“We have agreed with UAE to confisticate any gold from Nigeria without certificate of exportation.
“We told them that the value of the gold will be shared 50/50 as an incentive for UAE to eradicate illegal exportation of gold from Nigeria to Dubai souk.
“All we expect from whoever is travelling from Nigeria to Dubai with our raw gold is to pay royalty to the Nigerian Government and such a person will be given certificate of exportation.
“The certificate of exportation will be automatically entered into the Nigeria Customs Service’s system.
“Our law accepts exportation of gold but royalty must be paid,” Adegbite said.
