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Project: National Licence Monitoring

Business Case

The National Mining Licence Monitoring project proposes the design, development, deployment, and ongoing operation of a national system for tracking mining-related licence activity in Nigeria. The project summary describes a web and mobile monitoring platform, integration with existing databases and systems, pilot testing in key mining regions, nationwide rollout, stakeholder training, and continuous monitoring and improvement. The PHC proposal positions Project Health Control as the governance service for the National Mining License Monitoring System, with PHC used at the national level and by individual mining licence holders so that information, compliance status, risks, and progress can be reported through a coherent monitoring framework. The proposal also allows for trainees to be engaged during deployments to support knowledge transfer and local capability building.

1. Project Context

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Project Context
National Licence Monitoring is a proposed programme to strengthen oversight of exploration and mining licence activity through a central digital monitoring system and a PHC governance framework. The project is currently framed around Nigeria's mining sector, where improved monitoring is intended to support transparency, regulatory compliance, environmental protection, revenue optimisation, and better decision-making. The intended owner and beneficiary is the Government of Nigeria, with relevant involvement from mining, environment, and finance ministries, regulators, mining licence holders, technical delivery teams, PHC consultants, industry representatives, local communities, and trainees.

2. Current Position and Gap to Target

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Current Position and Gap to Target
The current position is characterised by limited consistency and visibility in the monitoring of licence-holder activity. This creates gaps in understanding operational status, production levels, royalty information, environmental impact, and compliance performance. The target position is a national monitoring capability that collects and analyses licence-holder data, integrates with existing databases and systems, enables real-time or timely reporting, and supports national-level governance. The gap to target includes platform development, data integration, stakeholder alignment, licence-holder adoption, governance protocols, access controls, training, cost definition, and operating arrangements for continuous monitoring.

3. Operating Opportunity

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Operating Opportunity
The operating opportunity is to convert mining licence oversight from a fragmented or manually dependent activity into a structured monitoring service with shared information, clearer accountability, and better evidence. A central system can help regulators identify non-compliance earlier, improve production and royalty tracking, reduce avoidable information gaps, support environmental enforcement, and give government and industry stakeholders a more reliable basis for decisions. PHC adoption at licence-holder level creates an opportunity to distribute accountability while still feeding coherent information into the national monitoring framework.

4. Problem Being Solved

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Problem Being Solved
The project addresses weak visibility of exploration and mining licence-holder activity, inconsistent reporting, underutilisation of mineral resources, non-compliance with environmental standards, and loss of revenue through incomplete or unreliable production and royalty information. It also addresses the governance problem created when regulators must oversee many licence holders without consistent, current, and comparable evidence. The intended solution is a central monitoring platform reinforced by PHC governance, data-sharing protocols, licence-holder accountability, reporting, escalation, and continuous improvement.

5. Proposed Investment Logic

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Proposed Investment Logic
The investment logic is that better monitoring should improve compliance, protect revenue, support environmental stewardship, and enable more informed oversight decisions. Investment is required to design and develop the platform, integrate it with existing systems, pilot and roll out the service, train users, provide cloud and data storage, and establish PHC governance support. The business case is strongest where the cost of the monitoring capability is outweighed by improved royalty collection, reduced compliance failure, better use of resources, lower regulatory burden, and increased trust in sector oversight.

6. Expected Benefits

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Expected Benefits
Expected benefits include increased government revenue through more accurate production and royalty reporting, improved regulatory compliance, stronger environmental protection, greater transparency and accountability, better data-driven decision-making, and a more scalable governance model for monitoring licence-holder activity. Additional benefits include reduced burden on regulators, improved data accuracy and availability, better collaboration between regulators and mining companies, practical local capacity development through training, and a reusable governance approach that may be adapted to other sectors or regions.

7. Cost and Resource Needs

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Cost and Resource Needs
Indicative project costs are $3-5 million for system development and deployment, $500,000 for training and capacity building, $1-2 million per year for ongoing maintenance and support, and $5-7 million total excluding ongoing operational costs. Separate PHC cost estimates include $61,160 for setup, $917,280 for continuation, and $1,900 for cloud services or data storage. Several cost areas remain undetermined, including stakeholder training and development, travel and logistics, risk management, and miscellaneous expenses. Resource needs include technical development teams, PHC consultants, government and regulator participation, licence-holder engagement, selected stakeholder users, and optional trainees.

8. Why Governance Support is Needed

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Why Governance Support is Needed
Governance support is needed because the project is not only a technology deployment. It requires coordinated decisions across government, regulators, licence holders, technical teams, and stakeholders; clear data-sharing expectations; consistent compliance reporting; risk identification and mitigation; issue escalation; and disciplined review of progress and evidence. PHC provides the project-control layer needed to align stakeholder objectives, integrate licence-holder reporting with the national monitoring framework, support periodic reporting, resolve problems early, and ensure lessons learned are turned into system improvements.

9. Recommendation

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Recommendation
Proceed with structured mobilisation of the National Licence Monitoring project, beginning with confirmation of sponsorship, accountable roles, funding route, governance model, data requirements, integration assumptions, pilot scope, and PHC deployment arrangements. The next practical step should be a setup phase that establishes the governance framework, stakeholder alignment, risk controls, data-sharing protocols, initial monitoring tools, and training approach before committing to full national rollout. The business case should remain live and be updated as costs, baselines, benefits, approval gates, and licence-holder adoption arrangements become better defined.