26 November 2017, Sweetcrude, Abuja – Alhaji Mohammed Abbas, Permanent Secretary, Mines and Steel Development, has directed all the Directors of the ministry to ensure full implementation of the Nigeria mining roadmap.
Abbas gave the directive at a two-day sensitisation and retreat for the Directorate level of the ministry in Abuja over the weekend.
He said the directors should collaborate with the Mining Implementation Strategy Team (MIST) saddled with the responsibility of ensuring full implementation of the mining roadmap. to move the sector forward.
“It is compulsory for all the directors in the ministry to collaborate with the team; your contribution will help the team to achieve smooth and successful implementation of the roadmap,” he said.
The 27 team members consist of civil servants, academia and miners. The team was inaugurated on 2016 with the mandate to ensure that the recommendations in the roadmap were well implemented.
He said the responsibility of MIST was to help in guiding the ministry to implement and achieve the objectives of the roadmap.
He charged the tip management to read and acquaint themselves with the relevant provisions of the roadmap as it defined their relationship with the MIST.
He said the ministry would provide the team with logistics, especially an office that would serve as Secretariat, adding that the team would be supported with fund to kick start its activities.
Mr Henry Davies, Director, Planning, Research and Statistics department of the ministry, said since the inauguration of MIST and the launching of the roadmap, the ministry made giant steps to actualise initiatives as laid out in the roadmap.
Davies, who is also the coordinator of the team, said those initiatives had been worked on through a collaborative effort from various departments, agencies, inter ministerial efforts and the private sector.
He said the ministry had been quite active to list mining activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange through policy reviews, driving the downstream sector and catalysing value addition from Artisanal and Small Scale mining.
He said the recent launch of the integrated Automation and Interactive Solid mineral Portal (IAISMP) was another giant stride made by the ministry recently.
Also, Prof. Gbenga Okunlola, Chairman of the team, said one of the aims of the seminar was to come up with proper ideas that could propel the roadmap forward. Okunlola said the team had four programmes to be executed before the end of the year, adding that the seminar was first of the programme.
He said the remaining programmes included meeting with the industry people; carrying the private sector along to ensure successful implementation of the roadmap.
“The private people must be involved, they are part of the driving force of the sector because they will put in their money while the ministry provide governance enabling environment, regulations and ensure full implementation of the roadmap,” he said.
The third programme is to visit the miners to explain the roadmap to them while the fourth is to meet with MDAs that will provide infrastructure to all the mining sites across the country
- NAN
