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Getting Right Investment Opportunities In The Sector

We have also trained the custom officials on how to identify the minerals while also providing equipment to detect minerals that are being smuggled,” he added, and noted that plans were also ongoing to organise miners under a cooperative to provide access to loans and equipment.

“We are also setting up cooperatives for the miners because some of them do not have money to pay for the mining license. By putting them under one umbrella would give us the opportunity to support them by way of loans and equipment,” he added.

He said the Federal Government has also set up the National Integrated Exploration programme to identify solid minerals that would support the government’s quest for economic diversification.

“With the programme, more emphasis on where these resources can be found and harnessing these resources would encourage investors to come into the mining space to add value for economic growth,” he said.

Earlier, the president, LCCI, Babatunde Ruwase, said the summit was critical due to the nation’s economic diversification aspiration.

He lamented that the sector was still largely underdeveloped despite the abundance of mineral deposits in the country.

He said in 2018, the sector contributed approximately 0.30 per cent to Gross Domestic Products, stressing that the contribution was a sharp contrast to the historical higher percentages recorded in the 70s.

He stated that the sector contribution of 0.3 per cent to national employment and 0.02 per cent to exports underscored the fact that the potential of the sector for national development and wealth creation have not been harnessed.

He also bemoaned the existing fiscal framework for investors in the mining sector, saying it was friendly enough and does not consider the peculiar nature of the sector.

“Particularly, with its long gestation period, Nigeria will need to revisit the entire fiscal framework for the taxation of mining operation, in order to attract mining majors and foreign investors.”

Oil Prices Factor

The clamour for a return to solid minerals was necessitated by the global failing of oil prices, international oil politics, and the need to diversify Nigeria’s economy.

In the 1970s, the federal government set an ambition to use Nigeria’s iron ore and coal to produce steel for her industrialisation. The search and project development for the steel project was under the National Steel Development Authority (NSDA).

Subsequently, the Federal Government broke the NSDA into Ajaokuta Steel Company, Delta Steel Plant and other steel rolling mills. At the same period, increased investments were made into the Nigerian Coal Corporation and Nigeria Mining Corporation with mandates to mine, process, add value and enhance the utilisation of solid minerals within their activities and to export the excess.

In early 2000, the privatisation policy of the federal government resulted in another decline in activities of extractive companies within the solid minerals sector, although there was increase in exploration and exploitation of construction materials such as limestone and granite for cement production and infrastructure development of Nigeria.

On what should be done to address the issue, Engr. Babatunde Alatise the Chief Executive Officer (CEO),  TUNTISE Investments and Chairman of the Solid Minerals and Allied Services Group of the LCCI, and also a member of the Ministerial Committee on the Optimisation of Revenue from Mineral Resources by the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development  urged Nigeria to act fast in order to optimise revenue from the solid mineral sector, especially now that COVID-19, crumbling prices of crude oil and illegal mining are daily occurrences in Nigeria.

He explained that Nigeria and Nigerians have not really taken the solid mineral sector seriously, and asserted that the finance and investments sector needs to pay more atten­tion to mining.

He added that many banks still do not have mining/solid minerals desks as of today, and noted that Central Bank of Nigeria has created NIRSAL to de-risk agriculture but mining is still waiting for its intervention funds locked up at BOI. Banks are quick to fund real estate projects but still cannot see that industrial/ construction minerals like sand, granite, cement, iron rods are part of real estate. Banks and fi­nance houses desperately need to build more capacity in this sector.

He also said non-oil goods accounted for 22% export says NPA, so the min­istry is doing something right, but Nigeria needs export processing zones with well-equipped laboratories for geochemical, geological, geo­physical tests to be carried out to further increase these numbers.

He also said: “We still do not have a digital/ physical marketplace for solid min­erals; we need a Mineral Exchange, where off-takers and miners can meet, network and negotiate metal and non-metal commodities.

“I guess there is also much lack of information or misinformation. The discovery of crude oil has not helped Nigeria in this regard. An average Nigerian could tell you so much about oil subsidy but when you say solid minerals and mining, he is tongue tied. Yet Ni­geria is richly blessed abundant­ly in every state and region. For instance, Lagos is blessed with so much sand and laterite.

“Many people do not even know that sand is solid mineral. It is from sand you get silica for mak­ing glass and bottles, it is from a mixture of sand, granite& ce­ment you get concrete.Just imagine the amount of gold in Zamfara and Osun states, the coal in Enugu, iron ore in Kogi, Manganese in Cross River, baryte in Benue, Phosphate in Ogun and so much more.

“The Minister of mines Arch. Lekan Adegbite, has given the Organised Private Sector sig¬nificant boost in investors’ confi­dence and we encourage his bold actions as a deterrent to other criminals and villains. Collaboration with the Ministry of Internal Affairs via the office of the Comptroller Gener­al of the Nigerian Immigration Service would be great because it involves illegal aliens.

“It is only the immediate pros­ecution of such mineral bandits that will check the rampant spate of illegal mining activities going on across Nigeria perpetrated by both Nigerians and other nefari­ous foreigners.

In most countries I know there are rules to the excavation of solid minerals, and I wonder why it is not the case in Nigeria where there has been a complete neglect of the sector.

“It is Economic Sabotage to steal solid minerals, natural re­sources and our collective wealth as a nation and we must learn from other mining jurisdictions in Africa where banditry and reb­els control mining concessions like the D.R.C. for instance.

“It is very wrong to allow illegal miners especially foreigners to roam Nigeria freely in search of our natural resources, an act that is unlawful in their country. These for­eigners know the penalty of illegal­ly removing their country’s natural resources, yet they come to Nigeria and do whatever they please.

“I must say that it is time Nigeria started taking seriously the solid mineral sector and emulate min­ing countries like Canada, Austra­lia & South Africa because it is the only way to enjoy the benefits of the many solid minerals the coun­try has been blessed with.The diversification of our mono product economy is para­mount to the alleviation of the suffering of the common man. From fixing unemployment, to solving energy concerns and in­creased GDP, solid minerals de­velopment is the only way out of post-COVID -19 economy”.

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