The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mr Olamilekan Adegbite, says his ministry has licensed two solid minerals refineries in the country.
Adegbite disclosed this when he briefed State House Correspondents on the outcome of the weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Wednesday.
According to the minister, the two refineries, which are located in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory and Mowe, Ogun, will be refining gold for export.
“The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has agreed to keep part of its foreign reserve in gold. The CBN will be the off-taker of the gold in Nigeria.
“We have licensed two refineries in Nigeria. One is in Abuja. One is in Mowe in Ogun State.
“They will refine gold and of course produce bdellium that the CBN can buy at international prices. This is also an encouraging news for mining in Nigeria,’’ he added.
On revenue generation, the Minister announced that his Ministry realised about N5billion in 2019, the highest revenue ever generated by the ministry.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, who also addressed the correspondents on the outcome of the meeting, said his ministry had trained 48,099 citizens in digital jobs as part of the Federal Government plan to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty.
Pantami, who stated that he briefed the Council on the activities of his ministry in the 100 days, disclosed that the ministry had so far provided Seed Fund to 6,000 Nigerians to support their status in Information Communication Technology (ICT).
“We encourage operators to always improve their corporate social responsibility. This is another area that we are trying to explore toward alleviating poverty among many Nigerians.
“For example, Airtel did well recently in Lagos – they increased their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and many people benefited and we encourage others to do the same.
“However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no law that says CSR is mandatory, there is no such law.
“But, as part of encouragement, we always encourage them and challenge them to do that and this is what government will appreciate,’’ he said.
