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Dolapo Osinbajo, the Wife of the Vice President has urged artisanal small scale miners in the country to expand their trade horizon by establishing a proper linkage with global markets.
Osinbajo said match-making artisanal small scale miners with their global peers and established industries would ensure proper linkage while also promoting a symbiotic relationship that forestalls laundering and exploitation of Nigeria’s mineral resources.
“The seminar must focus on key questions, which is how do we attract more growth in the mining sector, and create more wealth for our artisanal small scale miners? The target of this exhibition and Seminar is to ensure a win-win situation for our artisanal small scale miners to raise the bar of their practice,” Osinbajo said on Thursday in Abuja at African Gems and Jewellery Exhibition and Seminar.
According to Osinbajo,”The key questions is how do we ensure sustainability of the solutions we found here. How can we grow different stages of the mining practice? From mines to markets. How can we use this a social tool to crack down poverty and increase empowerment of our people, these are questions that we must get answers from our discussions and Seminar today”
Speaking earlier, Kayode Fayemi, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development said in spite of the huge potentials in gemstone mining, phenomenal loss of revenue and damage to the environment remain major causes of concern.
“This is due to the uniqueness of the occurrence of gem deposits and the quantity to value per quantity advantage of gemstones which make illegal activities and smuggling rampant, thus the inability of the sector to deliver on expected economic outcomes,” Fayemi lamented.
