Adodo Osewengie
The minister of mines and steel development, Olamilekan Adegbite has posited that Nigeria, the hotbed of natural resources, contains quantities of exploitable minerals of the future enough to power electric cars and mobile phones.
In a signed statement made available to newsmen by the special assistant on media to the minister, Ayodeji Adeyemi, Adegbite noted that the Nigerian government is working extensively to rejig the sector to boost the confidence of investors.
Furthermore, the minister said governance and transparency within the sector have been strengthened by decentralization of the mining cadastre office, automation and upgrade of its systems to provide a user-friendly investment environment with unwavering assurances to investors.
The minister who spoke in a mining conference held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, stated that the Nigerian government has continued to put in concerted efforts to revitalise this sector noting that it has gone beyond the rhetoric of verbal talks.
According to him, one of the prime focuses of rebranding this sector and utilising the potential therein, is to help grow our economy, develop our local industries, create employment opportunities and beneficiate our minerals to develop its value chain.
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“The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, while speaking to a hall full of international investors, said that Nigeria has the mineral of the future that can power electric cars and phones.
“We have strengthened governance and transparency in the sector and provided assurance to investors through the upgrade, automation, and decentralisation of the Mining Cadastre Office.
“We are improving the connectivity between investors and the public with important geological information through the establishment of a Nigeria Geo-Data Centre at the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency.
“As we deepen our efforts to revitalise the mining sector, we are doing so with lessons learnt from a half-century of resource extraction. We recognise, for instance, that it is not enough to seek investments merely for the sake of exploitation and extraction.
“Rather than writing this new chapter of economic growth, our aim is to develop local industries, generate employment, and focus on resource beneficiation to create wealth along the mineral value chain.
“To date, the country has discovered over 44 minerals occurring in commercial quantities across the 36 states and the federal capital Territory. These include gold, lithium, copper, cobalt, oxide, amongst others,” he said.
