By Halimah Olamide
The United Statesand Nigeriahavesought ways to put in place a partnership that will adequate security for Nigeria’s mining sites.
The partnership is to ensure that security agencies are trained to be able to secure the sites as part of the overall objectives of improving Nigeria’s revenues accruable from solid minerals.
The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake announced the partnership in a statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Mr Segun Tomori on Friday in Abuja.
David J . Greene, the Chargé d’Affaires of the United States’ Mission in Nigeria, had visited Alake in his office on Thursday to strengthen bilateral relations in the mining sector.
Greene during the visit, commended Nigeria for its determination to develop its solid minerals , which had huge potentials to rival the contribution of the oil sector to its economic profile.
He had stated during the visit that Nigeria and U.S. have had decades of cultural ties, cooperation in agriculture and security amongst other bilateral relationships.
Alake, however, expressed confidence that the United States’s Investment on Nigeria’s mining value chain, would expand its access to technology in the extraction and processing of its mineral deposits and securing mining areas.
“The mining sector provides a veritable avenue for increased trade between Nigeria and the United States, especially in the area of value addition.
“Which implies processing of extracted minerals and setting up factories here. We will also require financing from multilateral institutions for our local operators.
” The Federal Government is providing incentives for investments like tax waivers for mining equipment, policy of full repatriation of profits to home countries amongst others, “ Alake said.
He described the U.S. as Nigeria’s longstanding ally and strategic partner in the development of its mining sector and lauded their readiness to partner with Nigeria in developing diverse sectors of its economy.
He said that Nigeria’s resolve to diversify its economy and reduce the over dependence on oil was not only for economic survival but also driven by the global upsurge in energy transition.
“We just want to diversify our economy from oil, not just for our own economic survival but also to be in tune with global trends for reduction in global warming.
“We also want to be part of the move to reduce global emissions and put our mining sector on the global map.
“We have critical minerals that are in commercial demand globally.”
According to the minister, the government is undertaking reforms to boost the mining sector, such as the revised Community Development Agreement (CDA) guidelines, which aims at reducing friction in host communities.
He added that other reforms included on-going plans for a new security architecture to secure natural resources; efforts to generate geoscience-data; and formalisation of artisanal miners into cooperative groups amongst others.