Olamilekan Adegbite, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, says an international gemstone market in Akinyele Local Government area of Oyo state, whose construction will commence very soon, will be ready before the end this year.
“The project would be completed this year, 2021, what I can say is that we have the funding, the rest is human capacity, we’ll try to finish this as soon as possible, Adegbite stated this at the handing over of two hectares of land donated by Oyo state government in Ibadan.
While expressing hope that with other things being equal, the Minister further said that “the government has done its best. They’ve given us the money to do it, now we are starting, you know how projects go, we have a site now, we are going to have an architect to design, we are going to have some other professionals in there, we are going to get the approvals, but this is a government project.
“Before the year runs out, we should be here to do this, formalise and commission this and I am sure the governor would probably be here, to cut the tape, I assume we go through that phase very fast, but we need to do the construction itself and then, of course, commission it.”
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Speaking at the event, Oyo State Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Temilolu ‘Seun Ashamu, who performed the handing over of two hectares of land for the project, said Governor Seyi Makinde remained committed towards the diversification of the state’s economy through the development of the solid mineral resources sector.
The commissioner stated that the siting of the market was part of the agreement reached with the Federal Government, explaining that, on completion, it will enhance the development of the solid mineral sector and increase the Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, of the state.
In his remark, the Executive Chairman of the Oyo State Solid Mineral Development Agency, Abiodun Oni, equally explained that the Gemstone Market will boost the IGR of Oyo State and create more employment opportunities for the residents of the state, saying: “This is our own part of equity because we are part and parcel of this project.”
