…to hold 2-day Stakeholders’ Roundtable Summit

By Gabriel Ewepu

ABUJA- The National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS, and the Bruit Costaud, Thursday, joined forces to brainstorm and proffer solutions to protracted and bedeviling challenges affecting the growth and development of the mining sector.

Speaking during a joint press conference by the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS, Kuru, and Bruit Costaud, on Stakeholders’ Roundtable Summit with the theme ‘Sustainable Development of the Mining Industry in Nigeria’, which comes up on April 29-30 in Abuja, the Director General, DG, NIPSS, Prof Ayo Omotayo, along with the Former Minister of Information and Managing Partner, Bruit Costaud, Lai Mohammed, pointed out that the mining sector had been negatively impacted over the years by lack of harmonious policies that carry stakeholders along, hence the anomalies and illegalities that pervade the sector at the detriment of the economy, environment and peace of the country.

Omotayo further stated that the Tinubu-led administration is poised to change the narrative in the mining sector under the ‘Renewed Hope’ Agenda, which he is deeply committed to ensure there is a breaking away from the old ways of doing things in the mining sector.

Meanwhile, stakeholders expected at the 2-day Summit include industry practitioners, government regulators; academia and investors, and all others involved in the value chain for mineral resources and mining.

He said: “Mining, which is the extraction of the mineral resources which the country is endowed with from where they are deposited for the use of our needs, has been a low hanging fruit for some time now. Our inability to take a decisive action on this has led to “outsiders” coming to explore and extract some of these minerals while illegal and unscrupulous elements capitalise on this to milk the nation dry. Of course, governments over the years have made tremendous efforts to address the problems and challenges of mining, however, there seems to be a lot more to be done for us to realise the full potentials of this sector.

“On the basis of this, the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, as the apex think tank for government and the country, in collaboration with an indigenous advisory and strategic communication organisation, Bruit Costaud, decided to contribute their quota towards the realisation of the mining objectives of Nigeria by organising a Roundtable Summit to address the myriad of challenges affecting the sector and to proffer useable solutions from there.

“The main objective of this Roundtable is to provide a platform for all stakeholders in the mining industry, not only to meet and discuss, but to deliberate and reflect on the best strategies to achieve a sustainable development of the sector. The end goal is for the sector to reach its potentials and to contribute meaningfully to the desire to improve the lives of the Nigerian citizens.

“Accordingly, this 2-day Roundtable Summit will look at the policy and regulatory frameworks guiding the activities of the mining sector, check its impact on the environment, examine how to leverage modern technologies to enhance the activities of the sector and explore how to build local human capacity to take charge of the sector.

“In addition, the Summit will look at strategies to secure the mining sites and activities in the country, ensure the attraction of large-scale investment into the sector in other to move it away from being largely artisanal by getting foreign direct investment for the sector; as well as ensuring the buying-in of citizens and communities where mining activities take place.

“This, no doubt, is a lofty venture which the National Institute and Bruit Costaud chose to undertake as part of their contribution to the up-liftment of the society and the recovery of our economy. It is believed that this will help to fast-track the realisation for the Renewed Hope Agenda and place Nigeria in her right place in the comity of nations economically, politically and socially.

Meanwhile, the former Minister of Information and Managing Partner, Bruit Costaud, Lai Mohammed, said the move by the two organisations to hold the two-day Summit is not far-fetched, because it has become imperative to ensure that the right thing is done so Nigeria can stand at par with other mining nations in the comity of nations.

“Number one, who is in charge of mining in Nigeria? Is it the federal government? Is it the states? Why do we have this conflict between the federal government and the states on the issue of mining? Why are mines shut down by state governments? Why isn’t there a robust relationship between the community and the mining industry? Why are we unable to attract multinational mining companies to Nigeria? Why are other smaller countries with less infrastructure and even less local stability able to do so? So this is why we are inviting policymakers, investors, practitioners, and the community.

“Let us all sit down and address the issue of mining. Mining is just one of the first areas we are going to collaborate with. I think the next one is sustainability. But I find NIPSS a very reputable and credible partner, and I believe that the synergy between us will be able to help the government to achieve a lot of its objectives”’, Mohammed added.