Mr. Dele Alake, Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals, has announced ambitious plans to boost the country’s economy by at least 50%.
He disclosed that his ministry is determined to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to Nigeria.
His initiative revolves around a comprehensive seven-point agenda:
In a document seen by Nairametrics, the seven-point agenda includes the creation of the Nigerian Solid Minerals Corporation, Joint Ventures with Mining Multinationals, Big Data on specific seven priority minerals and their deposits, 30-day grace for illegal miners to join artisanal cooperatives.
Others are the Mines Surveillance Task Force and Mine Police, a Comprehensive review of all mining licenses and the creation of six (6) Mineral Processing Centres to focus on Value-Added products.
What he said
Mr Alake said,
- “The Ministry has to take the bull by the horns if the country must reap the harvest of the trillion dollar’s worth of minerals under the ground across the country”.
- “To achieve this laudable objective, there has to be a paradigm shift in the strategy by re-positioning the sector in terms of the human and capital factors that can drive its transformation”.
On the creation of the Nigerian Solid Minerals Corporation, the Minister said:
- “Mining is big business. Nigeria must assert its presence in this environment by replicating its strategic positioning in the petroleum sector by setting up a corporate body that plays in this field”.
- “Consequently, the Ministry shall work towards the incorporation of the Nigerian Solid Minerals Corporation.”
Dele Alake should take it one step.at a time..He needs to quickly curb illegal mining,.which itself.is.not.an.easy task.an the militants and terrorists are using proceeds to finance activities. He needs to.verify genuine holders of mining licenses, curb one man.shovel.miners, develop standards and quslity.control systems and begin tracking mining proceeds before planning on capturing it as percentage of revenue. Also, the sector requires a finding structure that is outside of the government budgetary system. We know hos limitations hence he should sit down to understand that business otherwise he will be mesmerized
we have heard it all before !!!!!!!!