President Goodluck Jonathan transforms Nigeria to a safe investment haven for solid minerals business.

[FMINigeria]

By Obed Atuora                                                                                        

There is no gainsaying that Nigeria is endowed with a variety of solid minerals and metal resources but one must add that unless these are maximally developed and utilized, we may continue to depend on oil which regrettably, one can also say has been hijacked by greedy and shameless people.  This high jacking of our collective fortunes however, happened before the advent of Goodluck Jonathan's administration in 2011.

To prevent what we experienced in the oil industry from happening in the newer solid minerals and metal industry, the Federal Government, since 2011 commendably, has been redirecting the industry to a revenue and employment generating sector.

Nigeria has 44 solid mineral resources ranging from gold, iron ore, coal, zinc, salt, limestone, to columbites to mention but  a few.   Unfortunately, most Nigerians were unaware of the minerals and their great potentials due to the inability of past leaders to educate and enlighten them on other areas to where we can collectively diversify personal and national economy.

Reports from the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, indicates that the country has developed and started implementing the roadmap for investors to thrive in mining any mineral they may want to embark on.  The roadmap in short, is a medium to long term programme.

The short term programme, one is made to understand, makes Nigeria a mining investment destination.  It generates credible geosciences data; while the medium term programme increases mineral production in the country, through effective exploitation of mineral resources found in almost all parts of the federation.   The long term programme has enthroned large scale mining operations in the country such as delineating world class mineralized block to be concessioned to investors, among others.   The procedure of processing documents for mining any of the solid minerals in the country has been made less cumbersome and this has attracted many local and foreign miners to participate in the development of the sector.

Gold Miners        Under the new arrangement the mineral production, revenue and employment generation has facilitated the creation of 1,254,200 rural jobs, arising from operations in 1,710 quarries, 223 small scale mining operations, 195 mining leases, 845ASMCooperatives and 2,048 exploration licenses; the report said..

It is therefore, necessary to replicate the interest and devotion we have shown in the oil Industry to the solid mineral and mining sector because it will create more employment to our teeming youths, provide infrastructure such as road, railway, water, power and health facilities to the minerals producing communities, attract local and foreign investors as well as increase the national revenue and economy.

Given the newer arrangement too, one has got to know that there is opportunity for easy registration of intending miners, good roadmap for miners, transparent and other enabling investment environment to invest in Nigeria.

Obed Atuora is an Assistant Chief Information Officer and sent this piece in from the National Press Center.                   

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Federal Ministry of Information (FMI) Nigeria