Post by Trade facilitator on Nov 7, 2011 20:02:07 GMT 1
Despite huge solid mineral deposits in the nation, the sector is yet to be fully exploited in the face of vast opportunities that investors can exploit, writes ALEXANDER CHIEJINA
Fifty one years after Nigeria’s independence, the solid minerals sector is yet to take off fully. In an age when countries around the world are tapping into their natural resources, the nation has continued to rely almost entirely on oil wealth, relegating the bulk of other mineral resources to the background.
Up until the oil boom of the 1970s, Nigeria’s economy was largely sustained by the exploitation of solid minerals. Coal and tin were among the natural resources mined on a massive scale, with the former being used to generate electricity, power the railway network and meet the demands of regional and international markets. Going further, lead and zinc were a significant source of export revenue, and Nigeria was the world’s largest exporter of columbite.
Despite the laudable achievement solid mineral exploration generated to the economy, however, the country’s reliance on the monolithic product-crude oil- and subsequent membership of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Companies (OPEC) in 1971, made mining activity witness stagnation, and even decline.
Only recently, the National Bureau of Statistics revealed that while petrodollars dominate the economy, solid minerals contribute less than 1 percent to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as against its 10 percent contribution prior to crude oil exploration and government’s Nationalisation Policy to take over 60 percent of all shares of major companies in the country.
It turned out that stringent measures imposed by the government to nationalise these companies and enterprises did not benefit either the government or the investors, as most foreign miners abandoned their mines and returned to their countries.
However, in a bid to reverse this trend, President Goodluck Jonathan revealed that the focus of his administration is to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and diversify the nation’s revenue base by reducing dependence on oil revenue to about 50 percent by 2020. This, the president re-echoed, while speaking with leading Australian mining and solid mineral investors during the recently concluded Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) summit in Perth, Western Australia.
In spite of the president’s avowed commitment to the development of Nigeria’s solid minerals sector (with over 33 solid minerals in sufficient quantities for commercial exploitation), given its huge potentials for boosting the national economy, economic experts have decried the slow growth of development in the solid mineral sector of the Nigerian economy, as they proffer ways through which the sector, which is a goldmine yet to be discovered, can effectively be tapped into for wealth generation.
In an interview with BusinessDay, Loretta Aniagolu, chief executive officer, LOC Metals and Minerals Limited, revealed that citizens and states with solid mineral deposits are losing out of millions of Naira due to the lack of active solid mineral exploration in the country.
While disclosing the vast potentials for Nigerians in the mining sector, Aniagolu, daughter of the famous justice of the Supreme Court, Anthony Aniogolu, noted that major obstacles to developing Nigeria’s mining sector include lack of expertise and trained hands, disinterest by banks to finance such mining operations, community bottlenecks and absence of certified laboratories in Nigeria for analysing solid mineral samples before export.
According to the chief executive “Nigeria was known for mining during the colonial time sadly, the good hands retired and then handed over the baton to the younger generation who have no requisite training and expertise in the sector. Unfortunately, our universities are mere centres of theory devoid of solid mineral exploration.”
Echoing the sentiment of Aniagolu, Tope Adebanjo, country representative, Tasaree International Limited, disclosed that while the solid minerals sector is the future of the nation’s economy, virtually all the foreign direct investments coming into the country are in the petroleum industry, and recently the telecommunications industry.
According to Adebanjo, “Mining should be one of Nigeria’s major success stories. Instead, it has been plagued by the same factors that undermine the country’s potential generally – deteriorating infrastructure, uncertain government policies and overdependence on oil. Given the huge amounts of capital required by mining operations and the long-term nature of projects, investors cannot be blamed for thinking twice about putting their money into the sector. The current government is trying to lure investors to its solid mineral deposits, which were sidelined in the race for oil in the 1970s,” Adebanjo stated.
Also lending his view during at a recent miners forum at Abuja, David Adulugba, Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer, Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) revealed that given the necessary attention, the non-oil sector has equal potential of competing favourably, if not better than the oil sector.
For Adulugba, “Nigeria has high potentials in solid minerals, no doubt, yet not much efforts have been made in its exploration and exploitation compared to what are obtainable in similar endowed countries such as Canada, Australia, South Africa and others. However, current government efforts in putting down the requisite regulatory and environmental infrastructure in line with President Jonathan’s national transformation programs are critical requirement for success.
“The Council in its determination to support the mineral sector development, created the solid minerals unit to map out significant development programs and projects for the solid mineral sector to help stop the incessant smuggle of Nigerian solid minerals and to earn revenue for the nation through payment of royalties and foreign exchange earnings,” the NEPC boss disclosed.
Source: www.businessdayonline.com/NG/index.php/analysis/features/29449-new-wealth-source-needing-effective-exploration
For more information on solid mineral export / non oil export contact:
Ismail AbdulAzeez
www.ismailabdulazeez.com
+2348023050835 , +2347033632285.
Fifty one years after Nigeria’s independence, the solid minerals sector is yet to take off fully. In an age when countries around the world are tapping into their natural resources, the nation has continued to rely almost entirely on oil wealth, relegating the bulk of other mineral resources to the background.
Up until the oil boom of the 1970s, Nigeria’s economy was largely sustained by the exploitation of solid minerals. Coal and tin were among the natural resources mined on a massive scale, with the former being used to generate electricity, power the railway network and meet the demands of regional and international markets. Going further, lead and zinc were a significant source of export revenue, and Nigeria was the world’s largest exporter of columbite.
Despite the laudable achievement solid mineral exploration generated to the economy, however, the country’s reliance on the monolithic product-crude oil- and subsequent membership of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Companies (OPEC) in 1971, made mining activity witness stagnation, and even decline.
Only recently, the National Bureau of Statistics revealed that while petrodollars dominate the economy, solid minerals contribute less than 1 percent to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as against its 10 percent contribution prior to crude oil exploration and government’s Nationalisation Policy to take over 60 percent of all shares of major companies in the country.
It turned out that stringent measures imposed by the government to nationalise these companies and enterprises did not benefit either the government or the investors, as most foreign miners abandoned their mines and returned to their countries.
However, in a bid to reverse this trend, President Goodluck Jonathan revealed that the focus of his administration is to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and diversify the nation’s revenue base by reducing dependence on oil revenue to about 50 percent by 2020. This, the president re-echoed, while speaking with leading Australian mining and solid mineral investors during the recently concluded Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) summit in Perth, Western Australia.
In spite of the president’s avowed commitment to the development of Nigeria’s solid minerals sector (with over 33 solid minerals in sufficient quantities for commercial exploitation), given its huge potentials for boosting the national economy, economic experts have decried the slow growth of development in the solid mineral sector of the Nigerian economy, as they proffer ways through which the sector, which is a goldmine yet to be discovered, can effectively be tapped into for wealth generation.
In an interview with BusinessDay, Loretta Aniagolu, chief executive officer, LOC Metals and Minerals Limited, revealed that citizens and states with solid mineral deposits are losing out of millions of Naira due to the lack of active solid mineral exploration in the country.
While disclosing the vast potentials for Nigerians in the mining sector, Aniagolu, daughter of the famous justice of the Supreme Court, Anthony Aniogolu, noted that major obstacles to developing Nigeria’s mining sector include lack of expertise and trained hands, disinterest by banks to finance such mining operations, community bottlenecks and absence of certified laboratories in Nigeria for analysing solid mineral samples before export.
According to the chief executive “Nigeria was known for mining during the colonial time sadly, the good hands retired and then handed over the baton to the younger generation who have no requisite training and expertise in the sector. Unfortunately, our universities are mere centres of theory devoid of solid mineral exploration.”
Echoing the sentiment of Aniagolu, Tope Adebanjo, country representative, Tasaree International Limited, disclosed that while the solid minerals sector is the future of the nation’s economy, virtually all the foreign direct investments coming into the country are in the petroleum industry, and recently the telecommunications industry.
According to Adebanjo, “Mining should be one of Nigeria’s major success stories. Instead, it has been plagued by the same factors that undermine the country’s potential generally – deteriorating infrastructure, uncertain government policies and overdependence on oil. Given the huge amounts of capital required by mining operations and the long-term nature of projects, investors cannot be blamed for thinking twice about putting their money into the sector. The current government is trying to lure investors to its solid mineral deposits, which were sidelined in the race for oil in the 1970s,” Adebanjo stated.
Also lending his view during at a recent miners forum at Abuja, David Adulugba, Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer, Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) revealed that given the necessary attention, the non-oil sector has equal potential of competing favourably, if not better than the oil sector.
For Adulugba, “Nigeria has high potentials in solid minerals, no doubt, yet not much efforts have been made in its exploration and exploitation compared to what are obtainable in similar endowed countries such as Canada, Australia, South Africa and others. However, current government efforts in putting down the requisite regulatory and environmental infrastructure in line with President Jonathan’s national transformation programs are critical requirement for success.
“The Council in its determination to support the mineral sector development, created the solid minerals unit to map out significant development programs and projects for the solid mineral sector to help stop the incessant smuggle of Nigerian solid minerals and to earn revenue for the nation through payment of royalties and foreign exchange earnings,” the NEPC boss disclosed.
Source: www.businessdayonline.com/NG/index.php/analysis/features/29449-new-wealth-source-needing-effective-exploration
For more information on solid mineral export / non oil export contact:
Ismail AbdulAzeez
www.ismailabdulazeez.com
+2348023050835 , +2347033632285.
