By Gabriel Olawale

37-year-old Nigerian Extractives industry transparency initiative (NEITI) Board Member representing Southwest Nigeria, Professor Damilola Olawuyi has said that the country needs credible data on its mineral resources in order to attract foreign investment.

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Afe Babalola University noted that mineral resources like gold, copper, silver, palladium, and other precious metals can be leveraged upon country’s economic emancipation.

The Youngest Senior Advocate of Nigeria (Academic Section) said this via a Zoom meeting held on Wednesday evening.

Professor Olawuyi noted that economic significance is inevitable with the production of these precious metals.

He, therefore stressed the need for government to focus on these precious metals when allocating budget for data analysis even as it embarked upon branding and credible data.

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor explained that credible data on the precious metals would place premium on the country and attract foreign investment without stress.

“If we have credible data on these four metals, we don’t even need to do much because people would come from all over the place.

“Why don’t we divert our resources to precious metals such as Gold, silver, copper, and palladium. Any country that can produce those four can be economically significant overnight.

“We have these in Nigeria and we have these in southwest. So, if we are allocating budget for data analysis, why don’t we focus on these four precious metals, brand them and then we have credible data on them.

“But, in a situation where we are over-stretching our efforts and we are not getting any tangible result, it is because we have not yet organised ourselves the way we should” He said.

Meanwhile, Professor Damilola urged that the mining sector be re-organised and aggressively market its capabilities.

“We must first of all organize the sector and aggressively market our capabilities. The reason why the oil and gas sector had been attractive over the last years is because we have been able to organize the sector.