29 November 2017, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, Alhaji Mohammed Abbas, has sought synergy between directors in the ministry and the Mining Implementation Strategy Team, MIST, charged with the responsibility of full implementation of the Nigerian mining roadmap.
Abbas said in Abuja that cooperation between the directors and MIST was necessary 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,” the Permanent Secretary said at a two-day sensitisation and retreat for the Directorate level of the ministry in Abuja.
The 27-member team, consisting of civil servants, academia and miners, was inaugurated in 2016 with the mandate to ensure that the recommendations in the roadmap were well implemented.
Abbas 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 stated that 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.
