The solid minerals sector contributed N54bn to the country’s Gross Domestic Product between 2007 and 2010, the Chairman, Solid Minerals Development Fund, Mr. Utsu Adie, said on Tuesday.
Adie, in a response after the inauguration of the board of SMDF by the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mr. Musa Sada, in Abuja, said though the performance of the sector was grossly under reported, the government had vigorously reformed it.
He said, “Even at its present infancy, the solid minerals sector has started contributing to the GDP of the nation.
“The recent Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative’s audit report on solid minerals confirmed financial flows to the government of over N54bn between 2007 and 2010 from quarries, small-scale miners and cement manufacturing firms.”
According to Adie, the government has invested heavily in the acquisition of geological data and in the establishment of new mining institutions.
He said the outcome of the transformation in the mining sector was the substantial exploration going on in several locations in the country by both foreign and local firms.
The board chairman observed that mining had a long gestation period, stressing that in developed economies, exploration and exploitation usually take an average of five to 10 years.
He said, “In reality, the development of solid minerals takes a long time, but when the big mines start, and they will soon start, the sector will create enormous wealth, job opportunities and local value addition.
“Mining will then have a real effect on the Nigerian economy and generate massive infrastructural development.”
Earlier in his address, Sada said the establishment of the SMDF was a response to the job demands of the ministry’s mandate towards the nation’s economic diversification policy.
“The inauguration of the board of the SMDF is in consonance with the dictates of Section 34 of the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act, 2007, and its regulations, which provide for the establishment of the fund,” he said.
