Nigeria woos investors in the mining sector

Mr Musa Mohammed
Minister of Mines and Steel Development

Nigeria woos investors in the mining sector
Helen Shok Jok, Abuja

Participants and investors at the first stakeholder’s forum of the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency (NGSA) holding in Abuja have been urged to invest in the huge mineral resource base of Nigeria.

The forum, which took place on Thursday, was aimed at presenting the new publications of the agency as part of the mandates of continuous data generation for wealth creation.

Declaring the forum open, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mr Musa Mohammed, said that the creation of the agency since 2005 has resulted in the production of vast array of geosciences data.

Globally reliable data

The Minister pointed out that the NGSA had lived up to expectation with regards to generation of reliable geoscience data that has been proved not only to be up to date but has  been attested to by end users globally to be reliable.

He said: “The mining sector is correctly aligned with the transformation agenda of the present administration and the vision 2020:20 and it will have key inputs into the power and energy sector. The NGSA has a specific mandate from the vision 2020:20 with respect of producing geological maps on the scale of 1:100,000.”

Creating needed awareness

Since its establishment in 2005, the Agency has completed the Air Borne Geophysical Survey of Nigeria, which the government had acknowledged as an effective way of unraveling areas of possible mineralization as currently being carried out by more than 50 countries of the world.

“Another mile stone in the life of the NGSA was the intensive exploration and mineral assessment nation-wide in response to demand for additional information which resulted in the discovery of new mineral finds of varied economic scale four years ago,” theMinister said.

A former Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mrs Modupe Adelaja, who was also at the forum, commended the Minister for the focus on data collation adding that it was only with the availability of proper data that the Nigerian mining sector can attend the expected height.

Mr Mohammed said that the forum wiould create the needed awareness for investors interested in the Mines and Steel sector of the Nigerian economy.

There were exhibitions of the nation’s huge mineral deposit at the forum.

Williams