Agency urges FG to invest short term in mining sector

Nwegbu Ndubuisi, the Director-General, Nigerian Geological Survey Agency, has urged the Federal Government to explore short term investment in the mining sector to boost the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Ndubuisi said on Thursday in Abuja that investing in short term programme in the sector would boost the economy’s GDP within two years.

“In the short term programme, we have some industrial minerals such as clay, limestone, Gypsum among others that can impact positively on the economy within the next two years,’’ he said.

He said previous administrations had been reluctant to invest in the sector because of its long term yield.

“Government wants investment that will yield fast result for the electorate to see what it has done after one year in office, which is why they refuse to invest in the sector.

“The new administration can invest in the short term and leave the medium and long terms programme which consist of metallic, lead drink, gold, columbite among others for now.’’

Ndubuisi said an investment on clay would provide raw materials for the Nigeria pharmaceutical and paint companies, thereby stopping importation of raw materials.

He further said an investment in the sector would create employment in the country.

According to him, Dangote generates huge capital from the Obajana Cement Company through its large investment in lime stones.

“The cement it produces is from 90 per cent lime stone, and the mineral was realised through the effort of a geological survey.

“Nigeria can have about six sizes of Obajana cement spread across the country because we have lime stone in large quantity.

“If proper exploration is encouraged in Nigeria, we will be able to compete with Ghana that has gold, because we also have gold in large quantity.’’

According to him, massive investment is needed in mineral exploration because Nigeria is lagging behind as compared to other countries.

” Some companies invested lots of capital in the oil that we enjoy today; if huge capital is invested in our minerals, it will substantially contribute to the GDP and reduce unemployment.’’

However, he said that some units in the presidency had demanded for a position paper to help define the policy direction of administration to invest in the mining sector.

(NAN)