Buhari met serious challenge in mining sector, minister tells delegates in UK

IN line with the Federal Government’s commitment to diversify the economy and provide jobs for the teeming youths, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, has highlighted reforms in the mining sector aimed at fast-tracking national growth.

The minister, who was the chief host at a conference in the United Kingdom tagged ‘Nigeria Beyond Oil’, also used the opportunity to showcase Nigeria’s mineral and mining potential and incentives put in place to make mining more attractive for investors.

Adegbite opined that Nigeria, an oil-producing country, should serve as a hub for investments.

He, however, noted that the country had been  an unwilling victim of the oil mineral curse which created a huge gap in  solid mineral management.

This, according to him, brought about Nigeria’s 30 years of stagnation in the mineral industry.

“The President Muhammadu Buhari administration met serious 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 to the national GDP,” he added.

The minister said that the present administration recognized mining as a strategic income stream in the face of dwindling oil revenue and looked towards increasing its contribution to the national GDP by three per cent in 2025.

He  assured participants at the conference that the Nigerian government is determined to protect direct foreign investments as indicated in the Nigerian Mineral and Mining Act 2007.

“Our focus is now on derisking the sector, through the provision of more up-to-date and comprehensive data on mineral occurrences in Nigeria and enabling a more investor-friendly environment through favourable incentives,” the minister said.

The president and CEO of African Finance Corporation (AFC), Samaila Zubairu, who was represented by the Director, Natural Resources, Osam Iyahen, in his presentation entitled, ‘Derisking African Mining Project,’  said the mining sector could potentially be the key driver of  industrialisation on the continent.

In his presentation, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Professor Konyin Ajayi, praised the strategies being put in place by the ministry, saying it would enhance the development of the sector for the realization of economic diversification.