Follow Us on Google
From Charity Nwakaudu, Abuja
The Minister of Solids Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake has stated that a preliminary report by a German firm, GeoScan, indicated that Nigeria is sitting on solid minerals worth about $750bn.
The Minister stated this,on Monday In Abuja, at a mining summit jointly organized by the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) and Bruit Costaud.
Dr Alake stressed that the mining sector holds great promises for Nigeria,as it has the potential of becoming a key contributor to the national economy.
He added that one of the critical factors in the ministry’s seven points agenda is local value addition, stating that it will create employments, more value and beneficiation for local communities where the Minerals are sourced
Alake, further added that the availability of data is also important for attracting investors into the sector which is significant to the growth of the economy.
“We are working with the World Bank, Excalibur and GeoScan, a German company, to get the necessary data on the sector. That is why the federal government signed a memorandum of understanding with Geoscan and they did a preliminary survey of our minerals on the output and potential. They gave us a figure of $750bn worth of minerals embedded under the ground of Nigeria.”
“That is a conservative estimate, by the time we conduct a serious, accurate data exploration, we will discover that we have trillions of solid minerals embedded under. So, the president’s projection of a one-dollar economy is not a fluke. By the time we are done with all of these efforts, input and policies we are putting in place, trillions of naira will be a child’s play and we will be nudging trillions of dollars.”
The Minister added that part of its reform is the establishment of the Nigerian Solid Minerals Corporation.
“When I first read this, a lot of people were taken aback and skeptic because what rang in their mind was NNPC, that is we are going to establish something similar like NNPC, which is a quasi- government venture. But no, the proposed corporation is vastly different in nomenclature, structure and operation.” He added that the establishment of the corporation is before the National Assembly and in place will be driven by the private sector.
“We are proposing 50 percent of the equity entirely to the private sector, 25 percent to Nigerians at large and 25 percent to the government.”
Speaking earlier, the Governor of Nasarawa State, Abullali Sule said investment in solid minerals is the way to go.
He said lithium is the new gold and Nigeria has abundant of it, adding that the biggest lithium processing factory will soon be commissioned processing 4,oo metric tons a day and transporting over a million tins of lithium a year.
On his part,the Director General of NIPSS, Ayo Omotaya, said the summit was organised to chart a way forward for the mining sector.
Similarly, the Former minister of information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said that summit will provide grounds for stakeholders in the mining industry to address challenges affecting the sector.
