The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, has hailed the United States (US) as Nigeria’s longstanding ally and strategic partner in the nation’s mining sector development.
During a meeting with Charge d’Affairs of the US Embassy, David Greene, in his office on Thursday, Alake, as reported by his spokesman, Segun Tomori, commended the United States’ dedication to fostering cooperation with Nigeria across various sectors of the economy. He emphasized that this commitment underscores the importance of the strong bilateral relations between both countries.
“I thank you for your visit. I met the US Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources, Geoffrey Pyatt, on the sidelines of the Mines and Money conference in London past year, and we had a fruitful engagement. I did analyse all our issues, and fundamentally, we just want to diversify our economy from oil. Not just for our own economic survival but also to be in tune with global trends for reduction in global warming. We also want to be part of the move to reduce global emissions and put our mining sector on the global map. We have critical minerals that are in commercial demand globally, “Alake said.
The Minister welcomed partnership with the US on investments in the mining value chain, expanding access to technology in extracting and processing minerals and securing mining areas.
In his remarks, the US Ambassador commended the renewed interest of Nigeria in solid minerals, stressing that the sector has huge potentials to rival the contribution of oil to the nation’s economy.
” Nigeria and US have had decades of cultural ties, cooperation in security agriculture amongst others. Your mining sector has huge potentials and we are interested in collaborating to invest in extracting and processing of minerals alongside providing training and knowledge transfer to the security agencies to assist in securing your mining environment,” Grene asserted.
The Minister shed light on reforms initiated by the Federal Government, including the revision of Community Development Agreement (CDA) guidelines aimed at minimizing conflicts in host communities. He also discussed ongoing plans for a new security architecture to safeguard natural resources, initiatives to generate comprehensive geospatial data, and the formalization of artisanal miners into cooperatives, among other efforts.
“The mining sector provides a veritable avenue for increased trade between Nigeria and the United States, especially in the area of value addition, which implies processing of extracted minerals and setting up factories here. We would also require financing from multilateral institutions for our local operators. We are providing incentives for investments like tax waivers for mining equipment, policy of full repatriation of profits to home countries amongst others,” Dr. Alake emphasised.
The Minister shed light on reforms initiated by the Federal Government, including the revision of Community Development Agreement (CDA) guidelines aimed at minimizing conflicts in host communities. He also discussed ongoing plans for a new security architecture to safeguard natural resources, initiatives to generate comprehensive geospatial data, and the formalization of artisanal miners into cooperatives, among other efforts.
