The minister of mines and steel development, Arc Olamilekan Adegbite, has urged workers at the ministry to continue to give their best in discharging their responsibilities towards achieving the mandates of their organisation.
The minister made this call in Ibadan recently during the opening session of the 2023 Ministerial Retreat organised by the Ministry.
In a release my Mr Ijomah Opia for the director of press, and made availabe to journalists, the minister commended the management and staff for successes recorded so far, even as he called for improved performance that will ensure the Ministry attains the economic diversification bid of the present administration.
He explained that the retreat would bring about robust deliberations that will further catapult the the Ministry to achieve greater successes in the sector.
Arc Adegbite further noted that such retreats were important, adding part of the resolutions of the 2019 retreat resulted in the creation of the Mining Cadastral Office (MCO) Online Portal which was launched recently and the Downstream Policy, which prevents the exportation of Raw Ore out of the Country, among others.
“These policies derived from the 2019 retreat has helped to increase revenue generation in the sector,” he said.
The mimistef urged staff in attendance to come up with strategies that will ensure deliberations and resolutions at the retreat cascades down to the rest of the staff. This, he said, would bring about synergy and ensure all staff in the Ministry are on the same page towards repositioning the sector and achieving the Ministry’s mandate.
In her address, the permanent secretary, Dr. Oluwatoyin Akinlade, stated that the topics to be discussed at the retreat, which include Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance; Climate Change and Energy Transition, etc, will enable the Ministry align the sector with global international best practice.
According to her, these topics would help stakeholders develop strategies that will promptly address and rectify whatever challenges are faced by the Ministry and bring about synergy in the sector as well as improve the Ministry’s governance framework.
This is in addition, she said, to boosting revenue generation and ultimately attractinh the needed investments that would drive the sector and make it the catalyst for the nation’s industrialisation
Dr Akinlade, therefore, urged all participants to take the retreat seriously.
On his part, the director, Planing, Research and Statistics in the Ministry, Ken Onwumbiko, said the retreat would assess the successes of the targets set in the 2019 retreat and review the milestones achieved so far as well as chart a new course for moving the sector forward.
