By Ola Kay
The Federal Government has declared its readiness to establish six mineral centres across the six geo-political zones of the country towards the enhancement of the mining sector.
The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria,NAN, on Sunday.
The minister revealed that the initiative was part of President Bola Tinubu government-led commitment to diversify the country’s economy, by developing the key sectors which included the solid minerals industry.
According to Alake, the centres to be created are also part of the government’s commitment to promoting value addition to its minerals, aimed at facilitating multiplier effects on the economy.
The minister observed that the country’s mineral resources are spread across the country, saying that, “We have our minerals all over the country and we cannot concentrate the mineral processing centres in one area, and as we speak those plans are ongoing in the zones.”
On new mining policy, he emphasized that government has developed a new policy aimed at ensuring that Nigeria derives maximum value from all minerals extracted from the country.
He informed that investors in the past extracted raw mineral resources from the country without adding value to them, which he describing the experience as a great loss to the country’s economy.
He said: ” Our Lithium is one of the finest qualities in the world, and it has other associated minerals like nickel, cobalt, and copper.
“So when an operator takes an ounce of our Lithium out of Nigeria, perhaps he declares Lithium. But when he gets to his host country, he now has other associated minerals to his gain and the loss of Nigeria.
“So our major policy which we enacted is that, henceforth, we would no longer approve applications from an investor that does not show us a concrete plan for local value addition. “Which means processing here to add local value addition, and this will generate a multiplier effect like local employment, technology, and skills transfer.”
He also disclosed that the move was in line with plans to locally produce Electric Vehicle (EVs) batteries in Nigeria, with Lithium as it’s major ingredient.
The Minister said that the local value addition policy had also been widely accepted by other African countries aimed at developing their local economies.
It would be recalled that in March 2024, the Minister of Science and Technology, Uche Nnaji, unveiled the federal government’s plans to establish an indigenous lithium battery factory in Nigeria. He said that the move is designed to reduce Nigeria’s dependency on foreign production and foster the local manufacturing of vital energy storage components.
Meanwhile, the African Development Bank, AfDB, in its revised economic outlook for 2024 had stated that Nigeria has the potential to lead lithium-ion battery manufacturing in Africa.
The bank stressed that the potential is realizable especially with the discovery of over 3,000 lithium pegmatite bodies in Nigeria.
About The Author
