BoI partners Laurel School of Mines to raise 1600 gemstone exporters

The Bank of Industry (BoI) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Laurel School of Mines (LSM) with a view to equipping 1,600 entrepreneurs with capacity to exploit and export gemstones.

The content of the MoU shows that 200 entrepreneurs will be trained in each of geopolitical locations of Nigeria and will be taught in four batches of 50s.

Speaking at the MoU signing in Lagos on Monday, Waheed Olagunju, acting managing director and CEO of BoI, said the curricula of LSM would contain gemstones picking, value-addition and trading.

“Solid minerals are areas where we have the lowest hanging fruits. You can just pick gemstones up all over the country and you need to add value,” Olagunju said.

Olagunju said Nigeria was blessed with agricultural and solid minerals resources which had not been exploited, stressing that this was the boldest step taken by BoI in the solid minerals sector.

He said LSM, located in Lagos, was BoI’s domestic development partner in the solid minerals space, stressing that the project needed diligent implementation.

Olagunju said development finance institutions (DFIs) were policy-based institutions set up to play in areas where market-driven dynamics could not cover, urging Nigerians to explore God-given resources to develop the country.

Tope Adebanjo, managing director and CEO of Laurel School of Mines, said this was an opportunity for Nigerians to own and utilise their freely given resources to earn foreign exchange.

“People that are trading gemstones in Nigeria are foreigners—the Malians, the Guineans and people from other parts of the world. So we really want our people to benefit from this. There are often five factors affecting gemstones, which include capital, market, technology, mineral resource and entrepreneurs. We have got the first four but we need to develop the entrepreneur,” Adebanjo said.

According to him, the institution was eager to develop the entrepreneur locally, stressing that Nigerians would be able to get the training at rock-bottom fees.

He emphasized selection process would be done diligently by the institution in collaboration with BoI, adding that the school also played in other parts of the world.

Laurel School of Mines is a professional development and training centre for mining in Nigeria, while BoI is Nigeria’s development bank charged with the responsibility of funding the industrial sector and SMEs.

“When you buy in Nigeria, it is five times when you sell,” he said, adding that there was a general paradigm shift in the country at the moment.

 

ODINAKA ANUDU