The Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, representing the Federal Government, is actively pursuing collaboration with the World Bank to unlock financial aid and technical assistance aimed at advancing the mining sector’s development.
A statement released by the minister’s Special Assistant on Media, Segun Tomori, on Tuesday highlighted this initiative.
During a courtesy visit to the Solid Minerals Minister, Dele Alake, the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, expressed contentment with the current administration’s renewed focus on harnessing the nation’s mineral resources.
Chaudhuri emphasized Nigeria’s strong potential to elevate the mineral sector as a significant contributor to its GDP, given its abundance of economically viable minerals. He reaffirmed the bank’s willingness to collaborate with the ministry, offering financial support for specific intervention areas and ensuring the efficient execution of projects.
Highlighting that the bank’s role extends beyond financing, Chaudhuri stressed their capacity to provide technical expertise to enhance mining operations within the country.
In response, the minister praised the World Bank team for their visit, commending the institution for its substantial role in spearheading developmental endeavors across diverse sectors of the economy over the years.
“The World Bank has been able to redirect focus on developmental issues and projects in countries, especially Nigeria. Just recently, we had the support of the World Bank on palliatives being rolled out after fuel subsidy removal. We had appreciable support from the World Bank.
“I thank you for your involvement in the min diver project, which, unfortunately, is coming to a close. We look forward to strengthening collaboration, which will culminate in the needed funding for critical areas in the mining sector, alongside the requisite technical support, as earlier hinted, “Alake said.
Explaining the vision for the mining sector, the minister revealed that the first major priority is investment in exploration to generate the requisite geo-data that will guide investors in making informed decisions about investing in the sector.
He also revealed that efforts are ongoing to establish efficient governance structures and secure the mining environment.
Alake further assured all that the Federal Government is committed to providing an enabling environment to safeguard mining operations whilst ensuring maximum beneficiation to host communities and accruable revenue to the government through royalties and taxes.
