The minister of solid minerals development, Dr. Oladele Alake, has stated that the solid minerals Nigeria was endowed with in abundance would be a resurrection tool to revamp the nation’s economy, just as he affirmed that the present administration was shifting attention from hydro-carbon.
Dr. Alake spoke when a delegation of the Nigeria-China Chamber of Mines led by its national president, Dr. Olugbenga Ajala, paid him a courtesy visit at the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja.
In a statement by the ministry’s head of press and public relations, Alaba R. Balogun, the minister disclosed that the ministry had initiated several deliberate policies and programmes geared towards achieving set objectives for economic prosperity as outlined in the roadmap that was recently released to the public.
The minister said the establishment of the Solid Minerals Corporation and promotion of public, private ventures was crucial to these objectives, adding that it would ensure sustainability and increase revenue accruable to the government with a significant contribution to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Dr. Alake further acknowledged the importance of security of investors which, according to him, is crucial to achieving the ministry’s vision of repositioning and sanitising the minerals sector for maximum contribution to the nation’s socio-economic development under the present administration’s renewed hope agenda.
The minister restated that the government had given illegal miners a 30-day grace, stressing that it was not a punitive measure but a way to formalise and make them legitimate to continue in their trade. He also said the aim was to streamline and structure small scale artisanal miners for maximum yield to the federal government.
The national president, Nigeria-China Chamber of Mines, Dr. Olugbenga Ajala, told the minister that the association had been preferring ideas and suggestions to advance the sector for socio-economic development of the country.
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