Alake: Foreign Investors Showing Significant Interest in Solid Minerals

Folalumi Alaran in Abuja

The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake has revealed that Nigeria’s solid minerals sector has started attracting significant international interest as foreign investors showing a keen desire to key into the country’s mineral resources industry.

He also said that President Bola Tinubu had expressed his commitment to increase funding for the sector through the ministry.

The minister, who spoke at the close out session of the Nigeria Mining Week 2023 yesterday in Abuja, explained that the funding will facilitate the generation of essential big data to further provide both local and foreign investors with information to make decisions and judgments about areas of operation.

He stressed that lack of funding and data deficiency, among other challenges, were major stumbling blocks in the sector.

He said: “ On our part, I can assure you that the president has given his pledge to increase funding into this sector through the Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals Development.

“With such funding, we can then embark on those very significant steps that we need to take going forward, such as generating the big data, without which we cannot begin to talk about any serious implementation or execution of policies or attracting the much needed foreign investment.

“ So, moving forward, we are going to invest heavily in big data generation efficient data that would enable investors both local and foreign to make informed decisions and judgments for areas where they want to operate. To learn, let them know what is where and how.

“I mentioned it again yesterday in my opening remarks. We are rejigging the security architecture that we have on the ground and it’s going to be a security agency structure with a large dose of technology to ensure that those that are newly licensed would have a very peaceful environment to operate.

“It reduces friction between operators in the field and their host communities, reduces whatever acrimony between operators and other levels of government– state, local, whatever.

“ We are going to ensure that going forward, all our environments are made safe, operating environments are made safe for the players in the industry, so that the government  too can rest on it for us. And expect the windfall that we have seen in the horizon coming into the kits of government.”

Alake outlined the government’s commitment to establishing administrative structures to ensure that the solid minerals sector significantly contributes to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP)within a short period. The goal is for this sector to become a major source of revenue, potentially taking over from oil.

He added: “ We have all succeeded in shifting our attention and complementing the efforts of our ministry in ensuring that everybody now becomes aware of the critical nature of the solid mineral sector and industry in Nigeria. However, you must not only translate this attention into concrete and meaningful reality, but we must sustain the achievements that we have garnered from this edition.

“ We are going to ensure that we put in place administrative structures and have enumerated some of this in my earlier submissions with our private sessions and the opening remarks and even publicly before now.

“We are putting in place a lot of mechanisms to ensure that this sector attains its pride of prayer plus in Nigeria’s socio economic structure we want to ensure that within the next couple of months in the short term, and yes, two years in the longer term, this sector contributes meaningfully significantly to the gross domestic product of Nigeria and it becomes the next critical resource of Nigeria’s economic survival.

“ We want to ensure that the solid mineral sector takes over from oil as a major revenue earner and source to the government and people of Nigeria. But all of these grandiose ideas cannot come into fruition without your active collaboration and support.”