Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake, says Nigeria has an abundance of 44 critical minerals in commercial quantities, assuring that President Bola Tinubu was reforming the solid minerals sector, to be attractive to big players.
Alake speaking during a parley with the Chief Operating Officer of the United States International Development Finance Corporation, IDFC, Ms. Agnes Dasewicz and her team recently, shared the vision of the Tinubu administration to reposition the sector to compete with others and attract investments.
According to the Minister, the Tinubu-led administration was focused on developing the critical minerals sector to diversify the economy from oil.
He said, “There are certain things that we need to bolster the sector, and all the support we can get is crucial. First and foremost is critical big data, which is exploration. We are actively working to sanitise the sector, including establishing a new security architecture to secure the mining environment.”
Responding, the Chief Operating Officer of the US IDFC, Agnes Dasewicz, lauded the renewed focus on solid minerals by Nigeria, emphasising her corporation’s interest in providing the required support to strengthen the mining sector value chain.
“We very much partner with private sector players to deliver financing to mining companies to help them expand what they can do. Some of the focus sectors that we have are critical minerals and infrastructure, health and agriculture as well as energy. We would love to do more in the critical minerals sector, and we know there is a lot of potential in that regard, in Nigeria.”
Meanwhile, the Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals Development would execute areas of partnership and further engage with representatives of the United States International Development Finance Corporation, in the coming weeks.
