Stakeholders in the Nigeria Mining sector have called on the federal government to increase funding of the solid minerals sector if Nigeria is to successfully achieve economic diversification and reap from its enormous mineral resource endowments.
The call was made in Abuja at the recently concluded Nigeria Mining Week organised by the Miners Association of Nigeria in partnership with Spintelligent and PwC Nigeria.
While appreciating the 30bn intervention fund for the sector recently announced by the President, mining stakeholders at the three day conference observed that mining was a long term, high risk and capital intensive venture and a lot had to be done to support operators in the industry and to make the sector more attractive for investors.
At the opening session of the conference which had in attendance the Ministers of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi and the Minister of State, Hon Abubakar Bawa Bwari among other dignitaries, the minister noted that the new Mining Roadmap which is scheduled for public presentation on 7 November has identified the key challenges hindering the sector from significantly contributing to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and expressed the ministries’ readiness to implement the roadmap in order to change the fortunes of mining in Nigeria.
He said the sector had secured improved funding for the mining sector through increased budgetary allocation and intervention funds from the Natural Resources Development Fund (NRDF) and International Development Partners through the World Bank.
He added that the NRDF fund would be used for the Geosciences data generation, improved minefield security, monitoring enforcement of the provisions of Nigeria Mining Act 2007 and its regulations of 2011.
In his words, “The fund will provide assistance to a selection of mineral exploration and mining projects to assist the development of the sector; operators are to exploit this funding opportunity to advance their mining projects.
“At the ministry of Mines and Steel development, our target is for the ministry to contribute five per cent to the GDP by 2020 as against the current 0.34 per cent and we look forward to working with all of you to achieve this target’’
The Week featured speeches, technical paper presentations, panel discussions, exhibitions and workshops and attracted various stakeholders including large and small scale miners, equipment manufacturers, bankers, investors, law firms, service providers etc with participants drawn from Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Canada, Germany and other significant mining territories of the world.
Commenting on the deliberations of the week Cyril Azobu, Advisory Partner and Mining sector leader who is also a member of the Advisory board of the Nigeria Mining Week said: “It’s been a very successful forum given the calibre of participants and the quality of discussions that have been held.
“In addition, the forum has also provided a unique networking opportunity for stakeholders in this sector and you can feel the optimism that we are at the cusp of something big. For us at PwC, we are happy to have been a part of this, a demonstration of our commitment to the development of the sector.” he stated.
