The Federal government on Tuesday announced that the country has awarded mining contracts to ten exploration and consulting companies as part of efforts to expand the development of mining and steel across the country.
According to Reuters, Nigeria’s Minister of State, Mines and Steel Development Abubakar Bawa Bwari had offered mining companies a three to five year “tax holiday”, duty and tax-free importing of equipment, full ownership of their businesses and the ability to take profits out of the country.
“Recently we gave a contract to four exploration companies, with six consulting firms to explore our mineral resources focusing on gold, zinc, iron ore, rare earth metals,” Bwari told Reuters on the sidelines of the Mines and Money conference in London.
“Apart from the normal budgetary allocation government has given intervention of $100 million and we are focusing on exploration,” he said, adding that the funds would be used to help government to develop the sector.
READ ALSO: The last frontier: oil industry scales back exploration
Bwari explained that the World Bank was in Nigeria few weeks ago to discuss progress on spending the $150 million the bank agreed to lend the country in April to develop the mining industry.
The minister did not say how much the contracts were worth but in July after at the end of Federal Executive Council (FEC) at the presidential villa he said eight firms would be awarded a government contract to the tune of N12.7 billion ($41.5 million).
“The perception is gradually changing and for us to really encourage this people to come in, we really need to explore because you cannot mine without information and information can only be gotten through exploration,” the Minister told Journalist after FEC meeting in July.
Nigeria is endowed with vast reserves of solid minerals, including, but not limited to, precious and base minerals, industrial minerals, energy minerals and metals. The country was a major exporter of tin, columbite and coal in the 1960s to early 1970s.
However, activities in the sector began to nose-dive considerably by the mid-1970s due to a number of political and economic factors, especially the significant focus on crude oil production as a major source of foreign exchange for the country.
Data obtained from the Federal Government revealed that Nigeria currently has over 44 known types of minerals of varying mixes and proven quantities, some of which are concentrated in certain regions.
Despite these huge potentials, mining in Nigeria, over the years, had been rudimentary and predominantly undertaken by small entrepreneurs and unlicensed, unskilled individuals, a situation that aggravates health hazards and environmental degradation.
Realizing these, the Federal Government in its Economic Recovery and Growth Plan 2017 to 2020, declared that the solid minerals sector is one of Nigeria’s most promising growth sectors.
DIPO OLADEHINDE
