Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industries (LCCI) commences a 2-day summit today to proffer solutions to the challenges facing mining business and metals trading in Nigeria.
Babatunde Alatise, chairman, mining, solid minerals and allied services group of LCCI, says there are lots of misinformation and myths that have enveloped the mining industry in Nigeria, which the summit aims at clarifying.
According to him, misinformation and uncertainty on mining sector scare both local and foreign investors away.
“Our aim is to unravel all the mysteries surrounding mining and mining business in order to present it as an attractive business opportunity to the investing community,” Alatise says.
Expected to be in attendance are key regulators of the industry, captains of industry, investors and budding investors in the sector, financiers, bankers and insurance companies, professionals and all critical players in the mining industry.
“We want to educate stakeholders such as financial institutions, government, investors as well as the general public to the attractiveness of the solid minerals industry in Nigeria,” Alatise says.
“There is a need to attract critical local investment to the sector in order to maximise the benefits of the industry to the nation,” he says.
He notes that some efforts have been made to sensitise investors on the potential of mining sector, but these efforts seem not to have addressed the issues of presenting the sector as a veritable and robust business opportunity to investors.
“The summit is not to reel out problems of mining again and again. Enough talks about the problems, it is time to proffer solutions,” he says.
The summit has been designed to offer local and international players in the industry an opportunity to meet and deliberate on the fortunes of the industry with a view to making Nigeria indeed an investor’s destination in mining and metals exports.
“We will proffer practical and workable solutions to the challenges militating against mining and metals exports in Nigeria,” he assures.
One of the targets of the summit is the production of an investor’s guide in mining business for investors and potential investors in the Nigerian mining sector.
Recall that relevant ministries and government agencies as well as other stakeholders have said that solid minerals sector of the Nigerian economy have the prospects of being a major contributor to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (2017 to 2020) as set out by the federal government, projected that the minerals and metals sector will be one of the sectors that will drive Nigeria’s economic recovery. It is estimated that the sector’s contribution to GDP would grow from N103 billion (recorded in 2015) to N141 billion in 2020, at an average annual growth rate of 8.5%.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the production of solid minerals in Nigeria hit 55.85 million tons in 2018 representing a growth rate of 22% in 2018, despite the fact that the mining and quarrying sector received the lowest credit from the banking sector to the private sector.
This growth, however, was achieved more in the quarrying segment where limestone, granite and laterite production grew and contributed more than 63.7% of the total solid minerals production in the country; limestone alone grew by 95% (27.1m tons) in 2018 as against the 2017 production of 13.9 million tons.
Most, if not all, of these productions were consumed in the infrastructure industry of the country. Growth of the high value and foreign exchange earning metals sector have remained rather very sluggish. Investments have been insignificant despite the quantum of proven and estimated reserves of various metals in the country.
JOSEPH MAURICE OGU
