The minister for solid minerals, Dr. Oladele Alake has announced that the country plans to engage in joint ventures (JV) with international and domestic investors. This partnership is based on opportunities the from the proposed solid minerals corporations which will cleanse and boost the advancement of the Nigerian mining industry.
The minister made the revelation after attending the recently concluded mining conference in Perth, Australia where he advertised the potential viability and profitability in the country’s mining sector. The minister reiterated all the objectives and intentions of the Nigerian government in wooing international and local investors. This has led to the creation of the Nigerian Mining Corporation (NMC).
The NMC initiative would allow the government to utilize the mineral resources efficiently. Dr. Alake expressed hope at the initiative quoting, “A special purpose vehicle (SPV) like the Nigerian Mining Corporation (NMC) will go a long way to entirely regulate and sanitise the sector, and act as a government face with multinationals, engage in joint venture arrangements so that Nigerians will have a stake in all of the ventures that go on in that sector. That is the role the corporation is going to play, and it is going to be seriously sanitized with efficient governance structures.”
On his part, the deputy director (Information) in the ministry said, ‘’Nigeria is shifting attention from hydrocarbons to renewable energy…and the solid minerals underground is a perfect alternative.
Secondly, since we have been a mono-cultural economy for several decades, there is the imperative to look for other very viable sources of revenue to shore up the GDP of the country; and where also could we look but the vastly untapped and unregulated solid minerals sector that is available to us?’’
The minister, Dr. Aláké, uses the mining summit as an opportunity to promise the investors that the current presidential administration would enhance public-private partnerships by providing the necessary framework and continuous capacity building.
He concluded by saying: ‘’We have planned many regulatory reforms – security, artisanal miners’ structure, and then, of course, the role data plays in solid minerals. We intend to go into this comprehensively to generate enough geophysical data and all other data that would be marketed to the investing global market to attract this critical investment into Nigeria, shore up that sector, and make it contribute significantly to the GDP.
The minister communicated that the illegal miners have been asked to join cooperatives within a 30-day final notice in becoming legal in order to continue their business. He believes this will standardize the sector coupled with the planned inter-agency security operatives to commence cleansing operations after the 30-day final notice.
