The Ministry of Mines and Steel Development and the Solid Minerals Development Fund have resolved to collaborate with the 10th National Assembly to amend obsolete laws hindering the growth of the sector.
The Executive Secretary, Solid Minerals Development Fund (SMDF), Hajia Fatima Shinkafi, made the disclosure Tuesday during the familiarisation tour of the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Dr. Mary Ogbe.
She said: “A law should not be 59 years old without us looking at it and reviewing it. Life is dynamic and there are parts of it that need amendments.
“We have investment processes that are now obsolete because it is no longer suited to a law that is over 10 years old.
“We plan to engage with all stakeholders in the National Assembly to see that to the finishing line. So we can’t sit in in a bubble and pretend that the law is perfect.
“We need to look at it and let it work for people. People make laws but let the laws work for people as well and not just on paper. So the practicality of it needs to be looked at and we will work with the 10th assembly to make that happen.”
Shinkafi said it was necessary to unlock mining full value chain potential in Nigeria, adding that the agency was interested in de-risk the sector and promoting private sector led investments.
Shinkafi revealed that there are plans to link the mineral resources that the country is so richly endowed with to infrastructural development to support capacity for diversification and export as a Forex earner.
She added: “We have gaps in data with the resources we have and to attract investment. We need to know more about what we have and generate data job reports and it costs money and it is very risky and banks are risk at us, banks don’t have the risk appetite to do it because it’s a gamble.”
She further noted that the SMDF is set to launch a Greenfield project for the first time ever at low risk single digit interest rates for private sector,.
Also, Ogbe, noted that the ministry is committed to promotion of the mineral sector in the country.
She stressed that the relationship of SMDF under the Ministry is symbiotic for the common goal of mining mandate and national development.
Ogbe noted: “We have been working together to bring the ministry and all these agencies together and that is how it should be, with focus of being the development of the country and moving the sector forward. And we can only do this as we collaborate, and I’m glad that this collaboration already exist.”