The Federal Government has announced plans to establish six mineral centres in the six geo-political zones of the country to boost the mining sector.
The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday.
Alake said that the plan was part of President Bola Tinubu’s administration’s commitment to diversify the country’s economy, by developing key sectors such as the solid minerals industry.
According to the Minister, the centres are also part of the government’s commitment to promoting value addition to its minerals, aimed at facilitating multiplier effects on the economy.
Emphasizing that the country’s mineral resources are spread across the country, the Solid Minerals Minister said,
“We have our minerals all over the country and we cannot concentrate the mineral processing centres in one area, and as we speak those plans are ongoing in the zones.”
New mining policy
Alake added that the government has developed a new policy to ensure that Nigeria derives maximum value from all minerals extracted from the country. According to him, investors in the past extracted raw mineral resources from Nigeria without adding value to them, which he described as a great loss to the country’s economy.
“Lithium is one of the finest qualities in the world, and it has other associated minerals like nickel, cobalt, and copper.
“So when an operator takes an ounce of our Lithium out of Nigeria, perhaps he declares Lithium. But when he gets to his host country, he now has other associated minerals to his gain and the loss of Nigeria.
“So our major policy which we enacted is that, henceforth, we would no longer approve applications from an investor that does not show us a concrete plan for local value addition. “Which means processing here to add local value addition, and this will generate a multiplier effect like local employment, technology, and skills transfer,” he said.
He said that the move was in line with plans to locally produce Electric Vehicle (EVs) batteries in Nigeria, whose major ingredient is Lithium. The Minister said that the local value addition policy had also been widely accepted by other African countries aimed at developing their local economies.
What you should know
In March this year, the Minister of Science and Technology, Uche Nnaji, unveiled the government’s plans to establish an indigenous lithium battery factory in Nigeria. According to him, the move is designed to reduce Nigeria’s dependency on foreign production and foster the local manufacturing of vital energy storage components.
Meanwhile, the African Development Bank (AfDB) in its revised economic outlook for 2024 said that Nigeria has the potential to lead lithium-ion battery manufacturing in Africa.
The bank noted that this potential is feasible with the discovery of over 3,000 lithium pegmatite bodies in Nigeria.
