Solid Mineral Policy of the Nigerian Government
Posted by ASCE (admin) on Friday, 19th February, 2010 at 4:09 PM
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The federal government has indicated plans to approve the reviewed payment of royalties received from the ministry of mines and steel development, for all titles won during prospecting, exploration, mining and quarrying of minerals as part of efforts to boost the solid minerals sector.

Vice President Goodluck Jonathan disclosed this in Abuja, during the 49th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce Industry Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA).

He said mining currently contributes just one percent to Nigeria's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and that the country is blessed with significant coal and iron ore reserves as well as gold, uranium and tantalum in some states of the federation.

Mr. Jonathan, who was represented by Abubakar Mohammed, the permanent secretary of the ministry of commerce and industry, pointed out that the federal government has taken some initiatives geared towards the promotion and development of solid minerals exploration and exploitation in the country. Some of these strategies, according to him, include the clear cut articulation of a national policy to direct the development of the sector, saying that government has "invested heavily to generate and make readily accessible geo-scientific data necessary to stimulate significant investment."

The vice president lamented that the solid mineral sector has been neglected while the oil industry is accorded priority attention, disclosing that the ministry of solid minerals development, with assistance from South Africa, will develop a geochemical database of Nigeria that is intended to facilitate exploration efforts in the country.

Sector challenges

He added that some challenges like inadequate infrastructure in the form of rail lines, roads, power and mineral reserve data are still being faced in the sector. Government, according to him, is counting on the participation of investors in the provision of infrastructure through arrangements provided by the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) initiative.

He said government is working on measures that would attract foreign direct investment either wholly owned or in joint ventures with Nigerians.

He stressed that government would concentrate greater attention on the design and packaging of solid minerals exports products, which he says have been recognized as a necessary condition for a successful export business.

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Industry potential

Mr. Jonathan, highlighting the potential inherent in the solid mineral sub sector, said there are lots of trade and investment opportunities and potential in the sector. He acknowledged that in the 1960s, agriculture and solid minerals accounted for over 50 percent of the nation's GDP and over 60 percent of the total trade.

He therefore called on NACCIMA and other members of the organized private sector to continually collaborate with government to get the youth to engage in activities geared at promoting and developing solid minerals country.


He described the theme of the AGM, which is "Promotion and Development of Solid Minerals Exploration-A Veritable strategy Towards Economic Diversification," as a wakeup call for the nation to stick harder to its diversification policy and move from being a mono-product economy to a diversified one.

Infrastructure decay

The national president of NACCIMA, Simon Okolo, slammed the federal government for its failure to address infrastructure decay in the country.

He said not much has been achieved in the area of infrastructure development, which is the main force capable of driving real sector development and attract foreign direct investment (FDI).

Mr. Okolo lamented that "most federal roads, especially in the South-West, South-East and South-South of the country, are still in very bad and deplorable states. "Similarly, we have also observed that most of the industrial/commercial nerve centres in the country have continued to experience heavy traffic, thereby constituting undesirable delays to motorists and other road users primarily because the rail and other mass transit schemes are yet to receive the desired attention needed to boost and transform the transportation sector."

Urging government to look into the issue of the power and the energy sectors and address the situation urgently, he said, "This is considered extremely necessary as the incessant epileptic power outage in most parts of the country has not only created untold hardship on the citizenry, but has led to low capacity utilization of manufacturers as well as reduced productivity of the real sector operators who now depend mainly on private provision of alternative sources of electricity through power generators, thereby making cost of doing business in Nigeria very high."