Adegbite: Downstream Mineral Policy Will Trigger Diversification

The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mr. Olamilekan Adegbite has said that the downstream mineral policy will trigger the nation’s economic diversification in a sustainable manner.

Adegbite, disclosed this yesterday at a media session on the forthcoming Nigerian Solid Minerals Downstream Workshop, Abuja.

The minister noted that the blueprint among other things, will trigger the revamping of the Ajaokuta Steel Company and the effective harnessing of the abundant minerals endowment spread across the country.

The Nigerian solid minerals downstream workshop in partnership with Lagos business school will hold on the 2nd of Dec. 2019, in Abuja.

Adegbite stated that President Muhammadu Buhari, had mandated the ministry to solve the long intractable problems bedeviling the Nigerian solid minerals sector and use the sector to diversify the country’s economy.

He said that with the articulation of these problems over the past 90 days, the administration was on the path of making a renaissance in harnessing the potentials that abound in the sector for the good people of Nigeria.

He said: “One of the great strides taken by this ministry is the current process of developing Nigerian Downstream Mineral Policy a mineral value chain initiative, this is first of its kind ever done in Nigeria.”

He revealed that as part of the process leading to the revamping of the entire solid minerals sector, the ministry would sensitize key stakeholders especially large investors of the noble and novel initiative for the development of solid mineral downstream value chains leading to massive job generation, wealth generation and industrialisation.

According to him, there is a great paradigm shift in the ways the sector has hitherto been administered.