By Gabriel Ewepu

ABUJA- THE President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), has been urged to consolidate on the success recorded in the mines sector as he takes over leadership of the nation on May 29. Speaking on expectations from the solid minerals sector, the Managing Director, Promethean Resources, Mr. Demola Gbadegesin, said it will be good for the sector if the incoming administration continued with the development and attraction of investors into the nation’s mining business.

Gbadegesin said: “We expect the President-elect, Gen Muhammadu Buhari to continue to leverage on the work that has been done by the present administration. “We have had a good one in development of the sector with the framework put in place. I expect that the new administration will build on those successes and continue engagement with all operators in the sector.

“I think the outgoing administration has done a lot in different areas to improve the development in the sector. One of the benefits in the sector is the stability in the regulatory framework of the sector. “In the past we use to have where ministers were changed every year but in this situation we had a consistency for quite a long time and that is what a sector like ours need because our sector is a long term sector we carry out projects from five to 10 years, so it will be very detrimental if the policy is changed from one year to the next.”

He also advised the incoming administration to explore more avenues to create the enabling environment that will attract more investors into the sector, thereby open up job opportunities for Nigerians and facilitate industrialisation. “The incoming administration should look for opportunities that would boost operations in the sector and attract more investments. This will create the enabling environment for the investors and operators, therefore open up job opportunities for Nigerians and also facilitate the nation’s industrialisation,” he stated.

Meanwhile, speaking on his company’s projections in the mining sector, Gbadegesin expressed the optimism of becoming one of the largest tin mining companies in the world by 2020. “From now to 2020 we expect to be one of the largest Tin mining and processing companies in the world. “We expect also to be fully in operation and having up to 20 mines operation, generating employment, trading as the catalyst for communities, and also look for opportunities for international expansion and be a global player, and all our plans are focused in that direction,” he said.