Oritsegbubemi Omatseyin
Lagos — Solid Minerals Development Minister and chairman of Africa Minerals Strategy Group, AMSG, Dele Alake has advocated a Mine Emergency and Community Development Fund.
Addressing dignitaries at the third AMSG High-Level Roundtable on Critical Minerals Development, held on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York, United States, the Minister also proposed an African safety facility to formalise artisanal mining and promote co-operatives in member countries.
Nigeria’s Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, chaired the event, which African Ministers of mining attended.
The Minister lamented the tragedy of mine collapses in Africa, citing huge losses in Congo and the Central African Republic and the recent cases of detained suspects of illegal mining who died in Nigeria.
His words: “Each time one of these tragedies occurs, I have had the painful responsibility, as the chairman of this Group, of conveying our condolences. But condolences, however sincere, cannot be the limit of continental solidarity. Behind every casualty figure is a family that has lost a breadwinner, a child who may no longer return to school, a household pushed deeper into poverty and a community left to cope with a disaster for which it was never equipped.”
He praised artisanal and small-scale miners for supporting millions of livelihoods across the continent and supplying minerals to domestic and international markets, urging governments to formalise rather than criminalise them.
“If AMSG can mobilize governments, financiers and investors around the billion-dollar mineral corridors, we should also be capable of mobilising expertise and resources to prevent miners from entering unsupported pits without geological guidance, basic safety systems or credible emergency response, “he said.
Alake also signed the Continental Integration and Economic Assurance Declaration, CIEAD, to provide the political assurance to co-ordinate bilateral and multilateral projects.
He said the declaration will facilitate predictable regional infrastructure and processing investment and encourage governments to collaborate on continental projects.
Earlier, Vice President Shettima called on AMSG to champion African industrial development by co-operating with foreign companies and governments based on shared values and mutual gains.
Stating that no foreign government can protect the interests of African countries better than the countries themselves, Vice President Shettima said Africa’s mineral resources must be used to modernise the continent and provide better living conditions.
The third AMSG High-Level Roundtable on Critical Minerals also featured discussion sessions involving experts from regional agencies, international institutions, and captains of the mining industry.
Chief Executive Officer of the Africa Finance Corporation Samaila Zubairu commended the AMSG, arguing that African countries can no longer wait to industrialise if they must feed, house and clothe a billion people in the next 24 years.
To confront the challenge, Zubairu said African governments must collaborate across regions as unilateral efforts cannot cope with the proportion of the problem.
