Nigeria and the United States of
America have agreed to partner
in the mining sector.
According to the Minister of
Solid Minerals Development,
Dr. Dele Alake, the United States
(US) has remained Nigeria’s
longstanding ally and strategic
partner for the mining sector development.
Speaking while receiving
Charge d’Affairs, US Embassy, David Greene in his office yesterday,
Alake lauded the United States’
commitment to fostering cooperation with Nigeria in diverse sectors of the economy, stating that
it underscores the significance
of the smooth bilateral relations
between both countries.
“I thank you for your visit.
I met the US Assistant Secretary
of State for Energy Resources,
Geoffrey Pyatt, on the sidelines of
the Mines and Money conference
in London past year, and we had a
fruitful engagement. I did analyse
all our issues, and fundamentally,
we just want to diversify our economy from oil.
Not just for our own
economic survival but also to be
in tune with global trends for reduction in global warming. We
also want to be part of the move to
reduce global emissions and put
our mining sector on the global
map. We have critical minerals
that are in commercial demand
globally, “Alake said.
The Minister welcomed partnership with the US on investments in the mining value chain,
expanding access to technology
in extracting and processing minerals and securing mining areas.
In his remarks, the US Ambassador commended the renewed
interest of Nigeria in solid minerals, stressing that the sector
has huge potential to rival the
contribution of oil to the nation’s
economy
“Nigeria and the US have had
decades of cultural ties, cooperation in security agriculture
amongst others. Your mining sector has huge potential and we are
interested in collaborating to invest in extracting and processing
of minerals alongside providing
training and knowledge transfer
to the security agencies to assist
in securing your mining environment, “Grene asserted.
Throwing light on reforms
embarked upon by the Federal Government, the Minister
highlighted revised Community
Development Agreement (CDA)
guidelines geared towards reducing friction in host communities;
on-going plans for new security
architecture to secure natural
resources; efforts to generate big
geo-data; the formalisation of artisanal miners into cooperatives
amongst others.
“The mining sector provides
a veritable avenue for increased
trade between Nigeria and the
United States, especially in the
area of value addition, which implies processing of extracted minerals and setting up factories here.
We would also require financing from multilateral institutions
for our local operators. We are
providing incentives for investments like tax waivers for mining
equipment, policy of full repatriation of profits to home countries
amongst others,” Alake added.
