ABUJA, Sept 3 (Reuters) – Nigeria plans to set up the
Nigerian Solid Minerals Corporation, a state-backed company to
help attract investments into the extraction of gold, coal,
iron-ore, bitumen, lead, limestone and baryte, a minister said
on Sunday.
“The proposed corporation will seek and secure partnership
investment agreements with big multinational companies worldwide
to leverage on the attractive investment-friendly regime
operating in the country to secure massive foreign direct
investment for the mining sector,” Solid Minerals Minister Dele
Alake said in a statement.
Nigeria wants mining to play a much bigger role in its
economy by expanding its mineral extraction sector to diversify
away from an overreliance on oil exploration.
Alake did not give a timeframe for when the new company
would be set up. Existing enterprises – the National Iron-Ore
Company and the Bitumen Concessioning Programme – will be
reviewed to fit into the new company while a mines police force
will be active from October to detect illegal mining, he said.
President Bola Tinubu has embarked on the country’s boldest
reforms in decades to try to improve Nigeria’s investment
climate and draw foreign investors to Africa’s biggest economy.
Tinubu inherited a struggling economy with record debt,
shortages of foreign exchange and fuel, a weak naira currency,
inflation at a near two-decade high, skeletal power supplies and
falling oil production due to years of underinvestment,
crude-oil theft and pipeline vandalism.
His administration has said it will seek to promote
investments rather than rely on borrowing to create jobs.
Tinubu plans to attend the forthcoming G20 summit to promote
foreign investment in Nigeria and mobilize global capital to
develop infrastructure.
The new corporation will engage local financial
institutions, which have shied away from the mining sector in
the past due to a long gestation period for projects, to promote
investment, Alake said.
(Reporting by Camillus Eboh
Writing by Chijioke Ohuocha; Editing by Susan Fenton)
Read More: Commodities : Nigeria to set up solid minerals corporation to attract investment