In its resolve to expand the country’s mining sector and make it a major source of income for Nigerians, the Federal Government has said that small-scale miners will be empowered through the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development.
Consequently, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Architect Olamilekan Adegbite has reminded actors in the Sector that the ban on the exportation of raw Ore is still in force as the government will tag any contravention of it as economic sabotage.
The declaration was made by the Minister in Bauchi while answering questions from Journalists shortly after he commissioned the multi-million Naira Kaolin processing plant sited in Bagurja, Gwaram, Alkaleri LGA of Bauchi State.
He said that Nigerians in the mining industry are aware of the law banning the exportation of crude Ore, “if you are working legally in Nigeria under the law, you must come to the Ministry to get a permit.”
According to him, “Now, what we are doing is that, the domestication policy has been passed since November 2021 but because capacity is still growing in that sector, if you come to us for an export permit and we realize that what you want to export in the raw form, we have capacity to develop it in Nigeria, we would not allow that, but like I said, this is an invitation for entrepreneurs businesses from within Nigeria and outside to come and invest.”
He also assured that many people of the North-East subregion including women in mining will benefit from the operations of the newly commissioned Kaolin processing plant in Bauchi stressing that the Federal Government will continue to involve women in the process of empowerment.
While reacting to the observation that there were no women among the beneficiaries of the empowerment programme of the Ministry, he said, “Sincerely, these are not all the beneficiaries of the empowerment programme, because per sector like this, we have over 100 beneficiaries in each of the Sectors we have, this is the 4th in the series and so, not everyone can come out today.”
Olamilekan Adegbite added, “Somebody made a joke of it earlier on, that maybe because the climate here is so harsh, that was why we don’t have many women come out, but that is not it, you saw women in mining made a speech, I want to assure you that women are well represented though they are not one of the people who stood in the sun here today, but they are well represented.”
An excited Minister said, “The Capacity of this plant is about 40 tons per hour. That means more people will be fully engaged in the process in order to meet the target, this translates to employment.”
Asked if it will add to the Federation Account in terms of revenue generation, the Minister said, “It is not so much about what goes into the federation account, this is going to be a value chain that will create wealth for people, it is not about much money that comes to government, the Federal government did this not to earn money but to expand the Sector.”
