The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake said the federal government is shifting its attention from hydrocarbon to renewable energy.
Alake also said since Nigeria has been a mono-cultural economy for several decades, there is an imperative to look for other viable sources of revenue to shore up the GDP of the country, noting that the solid minerals underground is a perfect alternative, The Nation reports.
The minister stated this in press release signed by the Deputy Director Information for the Ministry, noting that Alake made statement during an interview with the African news medium CNBC.
“Alake stated that his recent advocacy visit to the Australian Perth conference on mining was to market Nigeria as a destination for mining in Africa and globally.
“He said he canvassed the Nigerian government’s deliberate policies and plans to attract local and foreign investors to the sector by establishing, amongst others, the Nigerian Mining Corporation as a particular-purpose vehicle to engage in joint ventures with multinationals.
“To bolster the shift to mining, the Minister said, Nigeria is shifting attention from hydrocarbon to renewable energy and the solid minerals underground is a perfect alternative.
“Secondly, since we have been a mono-cultural economy for several decades, there is the imperative to look for other very viable sources of revenue to shore up the GDP of the country, and where also could we look but the vastly untapped and unregulated solid minerals sector that is available to us’.
The Minister said he seized the opportunity to assure investors that the Tinubu administration will promote public-private partnerships to finance essential infrastructures and consistent capacity building.
Dr. Alake said a critical roadmap component is generating adequate geophysical data that would be marketed globally.
“We have planned many regulatory reforms, security, artisanal miners structure and then, of course, the role data plays in solid minerals. We intend to go into this very comprehensively to generate enough geophysical data and all other data that would be marketed to the investing global market to attract this critical investment into Nigeria and shore up that sector and make it contribute significantly to the GDP.
He said the mining corporation will enable the government to harness the mineral resources substantially, unlike the present situation where it is an all-comers game with the government being shortchanged. He emphasized the proposed corporation will sanitise the sector in line with global best practices.”
