Emameh Gabriel in Abuja
Miners in Mineral Resources in Nigeria have called on the Federal Government for support by way of partnership to explore the huge forex potential in the sector to increase the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
They said the sector holds a huge potential capable of generating enough foreign exchange if there is proper synergy between the Federal Government and private miners.
The Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT), Miners Association of Nigeria (MAN), Sani Shehu, spoke at the 2023 delegates election of new executives members of the body in Abuja Friday.
He said harnessing mining potential is another sure way the Federal Government could earn more forex especially in the face of the rising inflation in the country where a dollar now goes as high as N900.
He said: “Mining is a very critical sector more than ever before and government is under serious pressure to source its forex but unfortunately, a dollar yesterday was N900 and I think this is very sad and if you look at the world economy, there is no option of strengthening the naira than to source for more dollars and happily more of these mineral resources are dollar-earned product and very few are naira source.
“Therefore, mining sectors and miners as operators have a critical role to play in terms of generating foreign exchange and therefore we have known how important we are and work close with government to give us all the support we want.”
Also, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Mine and Steel Development, Dr Mary Ogbe, represented by Okhunoya Sunday Onah of Mining Inspectorate Department in the ministry, lamented that minerals such columbite, tantalite, lead/zinc, tim and others are exported raw to Asian countries and Europe at ridiculous prices without value addition, adding that it has not helped technological and industrial growth of Nigeria.
He therefore called on the association to encourage research and development that could encourage value addition to most of the minerals that the country is endowed with.
Meanwhile, in his acceptance speech, the newly sworn-in president of the association, Dele Ayanleke, who scored 137 votes to defeat his rival, promised to re-engineer, reposition and restructure the body even as he noted that the association over the years has lost it “goodwill and become a pariah in the scheme of industry reckoning”.
Other members of the exco, who were sworn in Friday included the National Secretary, Suleiman Arzuka; National Publicity Secretary, Fatai Jimoh; National Secretary, Sulaiman Liman! Vice-President, Ibrahim Danyaro; Assistant Secretary, Shehu Dinawa and Financial Secretary, Tope Adebanjo.
