To mark President Bola Tinubu’s one year in Office, the Minister of Solid Minerals and Development, Dele Alake, has announced a new policy hindering mining companies interested in using the country’s solid minerals to set up plants and process such materials outside the country.
Alake disclosed this to the media as part of achievements in the Tinubu-led administration.
In order to prove the seriousness of the administration to the development of the Solid Mineral sector, the Ministry has revoked mining licenses of no fewer than nine thousand dormant companies that got approvals but did not use the licenses to produce anything,” he said.
Alake also stated that despite revoking 9,000 dormant mining licenses, 10,0000 new applications resurfaced, many of which have been issued licenses.
Alake boasted that the Tinubu administration is determined to turn the solid mineral industry into a significant economic sector, competing with the oil and gas industry as a new source of revenue for Nigeria.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Shuaib Audu Abubakar, who spoke just as his counterpart, said the federal government had approved the sourcing of $25 million to revive the Ajaokuta Steel Plant in Kogi State.
According to Abubakar, producing iron rods would be a start for the construction industry.
He also stated that the ministry is ‘deliberating’ whether to bring back the Russian firm that constructed the Ajaokuta Steel Plant, TyazhPromExport (TPE), or consult China.
While this is short of an accomplishment, the ministers have expressively disclosed these as achievements of the first anniversary of the Tinubu administration.
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