Oscarline Onwuemenyi
22 April 2017, Sweetcrude, Abuja – President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday in Abuja approved the constitution of the Board of Solid Minerals Development Fund.
A statement by the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development said Mr. Buhari charged the seven-member board to carry out its duties diligently.
The statement signed by the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mr. Mohammed Abbas, said that the board had Uba Malami from Nasarawa State, a geologist and former Vice-President of the Abuja Chambers of Commerce, as Chairman.
According to the statement, the establishment of the fund was aimed at supporting the ministry’s policy framework, developing the sector and providing necessary administrative management of the fund in the following ways: the development of both human and physical capacity in the sector; funding for geoscientific data gathering, storage and retrieval to meet the needs of the private sector.
Other functions of the fund included equipping the mining institutions to enable them perform their statutory functions, providing funds for extension services to small scale and artisanal mining operators as well as the provision of infrastructures in mining communities.
Members of the board are Demola Gbadegesin, a mining investor and electrical engineer from Oyo State, and Theo Iseghohi, Managing Director of Nishan Industries Limited, who hails from Edo State.
Other members are Samuel Eze, an accountant and former banker from Ebonyi State; Fatima Shinkafi, a chemist from Zamfara State; Uwatt Bassey Uwatt from Akwa Ibom State, and Yinka Mubarak.