By John Okeke
The Minister of State Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Uchechukwu Sampson Ogah has listed some of the achievements the ministry has recorded in the past years.
The achievements was contained in a release by Tine-Iulun M. A from the ministry’s press department and made available to The AUTHORITY.
Ogah said the achievements was made in recognition of President Muhammadu Buhari to diversifying the economy .
He said ,” in achieving President Muhammadu Buhari’s mandate of diversifying the economy, the Ministry has among other things achieved the following:
” The Optimization of revenue from the mining sector: The revenue contribution of the mineral sector has been very low due several factors. We have evaluated these issues and have taken some policy actions including the new export guidelines etc to address the causes of low revenue.
“Strengthen collaboration with State Governments and relevant security Agencies to ensure security and safety of mining areas.
” Introduce incentives to improve the investment climate for mining activities,” he said.
He said efforts are being made to stamp out illegal mining and formalizing artisanal and small-scale mining activities across the country.
According to him we collaborated with the private sector to create a large number of well-paying jobs for Nigerian youths.
He continue ,” arising from the above vision of Mr. President, the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development has initiated the followingprogrammes/interventions:
NIMEP. Federal Government direct Intervention Fund under the National Integrated Mineral Exploration Project (NIMEP) was designed to take advantage of the underexplored metallogenic belts. This is aimed at generating geoscience data capable of spurring investments into the sector. The project is looking at commodities such as Gold, lead, zinc, tantalite, lithium, Iron Ore, Nickel etc.
” Downstream policy: The downstream policy of the Ministry is an effort to ensure that mineral ores are not exported out of Nigeria without value addition.
“We are currently developing Artisanal & Small-
Scale Mining Clusters in six Geopolitical zones (Kano for North-west, Bauchi for North-East, Kogi for North – Central, Ebonyi for South – East, Cross River for South – South and Oyo for South-West) of the country to harness ASM mine produce and processed them at the cluster centers,” he added.
“Streamlining of processes for efficiency and transparency: We have upgraded and automated our mineral title administration system to enable online application in processing of mineral titles and Established Six zonal offices in each geo-political zone of the country,” he added.
