Oscarline Onwuemenyi
25 March 2013, Abuja –– In a bid to grow and develop the minerals and metals sector, the Federal Government has called on African countries to collaborate towards developing a Common Mining Regime in the African continent.
The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Arc. Musa Mohammed Sada made the call when he received in audience, the Ambassador of the Republic of Sudan to Nigeria, Dr. Tagelsir Mahgoub Ali in his office.
The minister said there was the need to develop a common mining regime in ensuring value addition to the mineral resources exploited so as to forestall the problem of flight of mineral resources outside the African continent which is militating against the growth of the minerals and metals sector.
According to the Minister, “One of the best ways to move forward is to cooperate, join forces among ourselves to add value to the minerals and be shielded from being shortchanged to ensure common exploration regime”.
Arc. Sada enumerated various reforms ranging from legal and institutional frameworks that had been put in place to develop the Nigeria’s minerals and metals sector.
He explained that part of the reforms in Nigeria’s minerals and metals sector gave birth to the Nigerian Institute of Mining and Geosciences, Jos, Plateau state that offers mining courses in Mining Project Development, Mining Engineering and Minerals Exploration, among others.
He said the focus of the government was to make the Nigerian Institute of Mining and Geosciences, Jos, a centre of excellence in human capacity development, noting that, the institute was already proffering solutions to some of the problems facing the minerals and metals sector.
He reaffirmed the existing relationship between Sudan and Nigeria, adding that, other neighboring countries should embrace similar mining reforms in order to move the minerals and the metals sector forward in the African continent.
Earlier in his address, the Ambassador of the Republic of Sudan to Nigeria, Dr. Tagelsir Mahgoub Ali, said the purpose of their visit was to seek for more collaboration with the Nigerian government especially in the area of mining for African renaissance. The Ambassador lauded the existing relationship between Nigeria and Sudan.
He expressed the readiness of the Sudanese government to collaborate with the Nigerian government in different areas of the economy.
He noted that Nigeria and Sudan has a warm relationship with about 8 million Nigerians in Sudan. Dr. Tagelsir Ali also noted that Sudan with its huge potentials in mining had a trade volume of 3.6 billion dollar retail from Gold in the year 2012 with about 20 mining companies exploiting Gold resource.
According to the Ambassador, other mineral resources in Sudan include Copper, Uranium and others.
The Ambassador extended a hand of fellowship to prospective investors from Nigeria for business investment in other areas of the Sudanese economy.
