As stakeholders deliberate on draft document

By Gabriel Ewepu – Abuja

The Federal Government, Monday, said the nation’s solid minerals downstream sector needs sustainable regulation for productivity in regards to diversification of the economy.

The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Architect Olamilekan Adegbite, stated this while declaring open a ‘One-Day Stakeholders’ Meeting on Nigerian Mineral Value Chain Regulation 2020’ in Abuja.

Adegbite who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Edet Sunday Akpan, said the downstream of the sector has been neglected for long which made the country suffer huge loss in terms of capital flight and revenue.

Stakeholders in attendance include Ministries of Environment, Industry Trade and Investment, Central Bank of Nigeria, Raw Materials and Research Development Council, Nigeria Mining and Geosciences Society, COMEG, Miners Association of Nigeria, Nigeria Society of Chemical Engineers; Association of Small Scale Miners Association of Nigeria, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Progressive Miners Association of Nigeria, Nigeria Society of Mining Engineers, and others.

He said: “I am particularly glad for your sense of commitment and sacrifices to be here for all to deliberate on the Draft Regulation of the Nigerian Value Chain Policy, which is a critical strategic policy for wealth and employment generation in the country.  We are working tirelessly to ensure that we deliver on Mr President’s mandate of using mining as an urgent tool of diversifying our economy.

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“So this stakeholders’ meeting is coming at a more critical time that oil revenue has plummeted and the nation is looking for alternative source of funding government operations.

“I believe with the strength of stakeholders and participants here present and taking into account your knowledge and understanding of this sector we all are in better position at this moment to seize this opportunity to reposition the Nigerian solid minerals sector by harnessing the potential of the downstream mineral value chain as a basis for true economic diversification.

“Now since December 2, 2019, when the first ever workshop on the Nigerian downstream minerals value chain was held in Abuja, we have assiduously committed our effort to this initiative by drafting a regulation to drive this strategic policy in a very sustainable manner.”

The Minister also explained that the document had passed through various levels of assessment and amendments that would make it more sustainable for players at the downstream of the sector.

“We have diligently followed through by subjecting the draft document to the Ministry’s senior management critiques for an amendment and went further to do same with heads of agencies and parastatals under the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development.

“Today, we are doing the same on the regulation with national stakeholders having undergone various critiques and amendment at the ministerial level as I have earlier pointed out”, he said.

Also speaking on the expected impact of the regulation when it fully comes on stream, the Special Adviser to the Minister on Special Duties, Sunny Ekozin, said the regulation is basically targeted to ensure value addition and massive job creation.

“For we gathering stakeholders now is the normal process in lawmaking. When you draft a legal regulation to regulate a certain policy of government, when you take it through government institutions there is also the need to pass it through the private sector people who are critical stakeholders within the mining sector.

“What we are doing essentially today is to present to the national stakeholders the policy regulation around the Nigerian Mineral value chain initiative spearheaded by the Minister of Mines and Steel out of his mandate of President Muhammadu Buhari.

“It is one of the key catalysts in development and by the time the regulation is signed into law we are going to massively generate employment for the nation and increase the revenue base of the country”, Ekozin stated.

One of the participants from the Institute of Earth Sciences, Nasarawa State University, Prof Charles Ofoegbu, said the regulation will enrich the downstream sector and make it money spinning one for the nation and investors.

“Nigeria is endowed with solid minerals, and there is no state that does not have deposit of solid minerals in commercial value. The problem we are having is rudimentary form of mining.

READ ALSO: Solid Minerals: Era of criminalising illegal miners over —FG

“A lot of solid mineral products carted away overseas, which are taken away raw out of the country and at the same time the industrialization pace is slowed down. We have barite but oil companies are still importing processed barites for drilling, which we have in abundance in this country.

“The Act is about having regulations to govern the downstream. The downstream means processed, going beyond digging the ground, but giving solid minerals final finish, which we can now sell abroad and compete favourably with countries like Australia, Botswana, South Africa, and others.

“But we need enabling laws because the present Mining Act 2007 does not cover downstream, but this regulation which the Minister of Mines and Steel Development is allowed to approve once it is approved by the Federal Executive Council and does not need to go to parliament because it is not an Act.

“The regulation is to provide guidelines to protect investments, incentives and others, which is why we are here today.

“The Mining Act 2007 largely covers to the upstream but mention was made of the downstream, but they didn’t emphasize it.

Ofoegbu also expressed optimism that the regulation will soon be out for enforcement because there is the political will to hurriedly to grow the sector.

“We have had a workshop before, a few of us were brought together to look at this things as experts in the field and we came up with document. If you have a regulation you must be sure the law is protected; the Ministry of Justice will look at it and put it into writing, and this is a technical thing we are doing and they have the language.

“Then it goes to Mr President, and it is pretty soon the regulation will be out because this country is in a hurry to grow the solid minerals sector and the President himself is in a hurry about it. So I think pretty soon this will come into play and it will now encourage people to come in from overseas”, he added.

Vanguard