*Dr. Kayode Fayemi, Nigeria’s minister of Solid Minerals.
Oscarline Onwuemenyi
29 January 2017, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The dearth of effective policy prescriptions, poor fiscal regime, among other issues, have been deduced as reasons behind the stunted growth in the nation’s mining sector.
This was contained in the new Roadmap for development launched by the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, which was made available to the media over the weekend in Abuja.
It stated that these key areas had made the Minerals and Mining sector under-performed since 1970.
According to the document, lack of growth of the sector was as a result of poor policy choices, which subsequently became compounded by deterioration in the fiscal regime, infrastructure and shortage of investment in quality geosciences data.
It stated that the Nigeria geosciences challenge continues to constrain investment decision-making.
These constraints include data collection at the appropriate level of accuracy and its timely dissemination to national and international investors.
According to the report, in recent years, “Nigeria completed a Higher Resolution Airborne Geophysical Survey involving magnetic radiometric and limited electromagnetic survey aimed at assisting and promoting mineral exploration.”
The report stated that while this was an important start, it remains insufficient for initiating and building investors’ confidence in the mining industry.
“The Nigerian Geological Survey Agency (NGSA) has begun to collect and evaluate sizeable amounts of information on the location and quality of available minerals, but much of this remains unknown to the sector,” it added.
It noted that there are no large-scale miners in operation in Nigeria today outside the limestone industry, as investors perceive the policy and investment climate to be hostile to business and lack of required infrastructure.
However, it said that regulatory, technical institution, directorate, department and agency set up by the ministry have long suffered from poor effectiveness in service delivery, due to insufficient tools, skill and funding.
It noted that Nigeria mining sector faces a range of important challenges, but that these could be solved if a clear plan is articulated and the challenges are addressed within the right strategic framework.
