CONTRIBUTIONS OF ARTISANAL MINING TO LIVELIHOOD ENHANCEMENT IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Artisanal mining is one of the sources of livelihood which employ lots of people in the rural communities of the 
world. This study assesses the contributions of artisanal mining to livelihood enhancement in Kaduna State, 
Nigeria. A mixed-methods approach was used, which includes both quantitative and qualitative data collection 
techniques. Data for the study was analysed using descriptive statistic like percentage and mean. Result shows 
that the study had grand mean scores of 4.55 and 4.67 for both mining and non-mining communities 
respectively, meaning agreed based on the standard for rating likert scale. This indicates that households in 
the mining communities of Kaduna State benefit from artisanal mining role of job creation, income generation, 
increase well-being and asset acquisition, reduction in poverty and rural-urban migration and increase 
empowerment. This has made them to engage in mining of minerals such as tantalite, zircon, Sapphire and tin 
to earn a living without considering the detrimental effects of such activity on their life. It is therefore, 
recommended that miners should be encouraged to invest using their earnings from artisanal mining such as 
establishing of provision stores, selling of clothes, mining equipments, building of houses for rent, purchase of 
motor cycles and vehicles for commercial use to reduce their over reliance on mining of minerals.