Kasim Sumaina in Abuja
In line with federal government commitments to diversify the economy and provide jobs for the teeming youth, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mr. Olamilekan Adegbite has highlighted reforms in the mining sector aimed at fast-tracking national growth.
Adegbite, who was the chief host at a conference in United Kingdom titled, “Nigeria Beyond Oil” seized the opportunity to showcase Nigeria’s mineral and mining potential and the incentives put in place to make the sector more attractive to investors.
Adegbite, opined that Nigeria was being perceived as an oil country and should serve as a hub of investments. He, however, noted that the country has been an unwilling victim of the oil curse which he said created a huge gap in terms of solid mineral management.
This, according to him, has brought about Nigeria’s 30 years of stagnation in the mineral industry.
According to him, “President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration met challenges in the mining sector occasioned by long neglect. It was apparent that we must re-enact the ‘Nigeria before oil’ policies, when the sector contributed as much as 5.6 per cent in 1980 to the national GDP.”
The minister, in a statement by the ministry’s Director of Press, Mr. Edwin Okpara, stated that the present administration recognised mining as a strategic income stream in the face of dwindling oil revenue and look towards increasing its contribution to the national GDP by three per cent by 2025.
While assuring participants at the conference that the Nigerian government was determined to protect direct foreign investments as indicated in the Nigerian Mineral and Mining Act 2007, he said: “Our focus is now on de-risking the sector, by the provision of more up-to-date and comprehensive data on mineral occurrences in Nigeria and enabling a more investor friendly environment through favorable incentives.”
He stressed that the ministry has achieved some milestones which he believed would prompt the participating countries as well as the larger mining world to be part of the exploration and mining revolution in Nigeria.
The minister listed the achievements of the ministry to include the on-going National Exploration Project (NIMEP), which was government’s rapid response to the dearth of investible geoscience data as well as the upgrading and automation of the Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office (MCO) for full online operations which he said would reduce the processing of mining licenses from 45 days to 15 days.
He said the outstanding gold discovery by Segilola Resources operating Limited/Thor Explorations Limited, whose exploration exercise in the Southwest of Nigeria established a proven reserve of one million ounces of gold on part of its tenements, is receiving the attention from international investors.
He further explained, “Our approach to the enactment of a ‘Nigeria Beyond Oil’ era is holistic, the integrated method involves the development of the necessary infrastructure to support the mines and mining communities. We are working assiduously to ensure the development of a central corridor around the steel development complex.”
This, he said would include the provision and up-grading of railway network to link Abuja to the mineral centers and ports for easy evacuation of minerals resource and products.
He expressed the wiliness of the country to attract genuine investors to the Nigerian mining space and assured that the President Muhammadu Buhari’s Administration would guarantee the safety of their investments.
Similarly, the President and CEO of African Finance Corporation (AFC), Samaila Zubairu, who was represented by the Director Natural Resources, Osam Iyahen, in his presentation titled, “Derisking African Mining Project,” said the mining sector can potentially be the key driver for industrialisation in the continent.
In his presentation, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Prof. Konyin Ajayi, praised the strategies being put in place by the ministry, saying it would enhance the development of the sector for the realisation of the government’s agenda of economic diversification.
Adegbite, recently disclosed that the federal government has provided N2.5 billion counterpart loan facility and lease-for-free mining equipment to support artisanal miners.
The minister, while featuring on a breakfast programme, Morning Show, on Arise TV, a sister broadcast arm of THISDAY Newspaper, had said the federal government was also working to ensure increased value addition in the nation’s mining sector through benefication of mining proceeds.
Adegbite, who explained that the fund made up of N2.5 billion from the federal government and another N2.5 billon added by the Bank of Industry (BoI), was deposited with the BoI for access by the artisans at a maximum interest rate of 3.5 per cent.
According to him, the government was organising the beneficiaries into cooperatives to make access to the facility as well as repayment very easy while mining equipment is being provided for lease by miners at no cost, to improve their productivity.
