NIPSS, Ex-Minister’s Group Chart Course For Mining Sector Reform

Nigeria’s top think-tank, the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) and Bruit Costaud, an indigenous advisory and strategic communication organisation led by former information minister, Lai Mohammed, are putting together a high level summit towards resolving the challenges obstructing the optimal development of Nigeria’s mining industry.

The two-day summit slated for April 29 and 30, 2024, at Abuja Continental Hotel will bring together all the stakeholders from the industry practitioners to government regulators, the academia and investors, and all others involved in the value chain for mineral resources and mining.

At a joint press conference by NIPSS director general, Professor Ayo Omotayo, and the managing partner, Bruit Costaud, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, ahead of the roundtable summit on Sustainable Development Of The Mining Industry In Nigeria, they said they were on a mission to help the mining industry contribute its quota to President Bola Tinubu’s quest for Nigeria to become a $1trillion economy, from the current $427billion economy.

They noted that the President Tinubu administration was resolved to explore all avenues to revitalize the nation’s economy and had earmarked the mining sector as an area that Nigeria looked towards for increased revenue as the country was blessed with abundant mineral resources.

They, however, observed that Nigeria was not getting the maximum from the sector and that, regrettably, foreigners were exploiting it to the detriment of the nation.

They said: “We found ourselves in a situation of sitting on enormous resources but still have high level of poverty. Nigeria is blessed with great human and material resources which should ordinarily be used for the betterment of our people. It is however incomprehensible that a nation that is envied by others due to her natural endowment is being vilified among comity of nations. Thank God that this perception is changing gradually.

“As part of the efforts to reposition Nigeria economically, as the base of the society, the current administration is poised to harness all the resources (human and material) available for the good of the society. One of these efforts is the restructuring of the administrative frameworks of the federal government. For instance, the new focus now are the areas of blue economy, marine economy and solid minerals.

“Mining 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 potential of this sector.”

According to them, the main objective of the conference 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, with the end goal being for the sector to reach its potential and to contribute meaningfully to the desire to improve the lives of the Nigerian citizens.

“At the end, it is expected that the Summit will lead to usable recommendations and implementation strategies that will lead to sustainable development of the Industry,” they said.

Responding to journalists’ questions, the NIPSS DG gave assurance that the conference will not be just another academic exercise, but that NIPSS, as Nigeria’s apex think tank, had direct access to the Presidency and its recommendations will not just fizzle away.

He added that going forward NIPSS’ intervention will focus on the different sectors through which Nigeria can make progress economically, and that mining industry was just the starting point.