Nigeria’s Indaba booth: Facts and fiction

BY SEGUN TOMORI

The “Invest in Africa Mining Indaba” conference in Cape Town, South Africa ended about three weeks ago, but seems ignorance through some ill-informed citizens or better still, mischief through few unscrupulous elements, now rent the air in some sections of social media.

A purported post was made about Nigeria’s exhibition booth at the conference in comparison with other countries, and allusions were made that our booth was empty and had no activities. That is totally false and absolutely misleading.

Nigeria’s booth was functional and had within it metallurgical and lithographic maps derived from the National Integrated Mineral Exploration Project (NIMEP) carried out by the Nigeria Geological Survey Agency (NGSA). These are critical geo-data that will guide potential investors in making informed decisions about Nigeria’s vast mineral resources.

The pictures posted that showed an empty booth were at the set-up stage. Pictures of delegates at the booth abound. Instances of enthusiastic, prospective investors visiting the booth and making enquiries were recorded.

That Sierra Leone, for instance, set up a flamboyant booth doesn’t mean every country must tow that line. The United States and a couple of other countries had simple booths. What matters is what happens there and how it sells mining prospects to potential investors.

That an irresponsible troll chose to snap pictures of a booth when it was just set up and claim it was bereft of any activity is patently irresponsible and smacks of utter mischief.

Besides, the main job of marketing a country happens at “country events”. Our Nigeria Day was a blast. It had mining companies from Nigeria, joining top officials of the ministry and agencies to pitch to diverse potential investors, and the response has been amazing.

The minister of solid minerals development, Dele Alake, was a panelist at the session, “Positioning Africa to Succeed in Diversifying Global Value Chains” where he not only made a case for Nigeria but hammered on value addition in consonance with the new thinking of the African continent. African Ministers of Solid Minerals/Mineral Resources had elected Dr. Alake as chairman of the African Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG) to champion maximum beneficiation from the continent’s vast mineral resources for the development of member countries’ economy.

Aside from these, the minister held fruitful bilateral meetings with US and Indian government delegations on the sidelines of the conference, and modalities for partnership to herald development of the mining sector value chain is in the works.

Reforms that will bequeath an efficient governance structure is underway with the ongoing processes for amendment of the 2007 Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act in collaboration with the National Assembly. An inter-ministerial committee set up by President Bola Tinubu to draw up a blueprint for securing Nigeria’s natural resources, solid minerals inclusive, is working round the clock to develop a new security architecture that will secure mining sites.

The ministry under the leadership of Dr Dele Alake remains committed to making solid minerals a major contributor to our nation’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Segun Tomori is the special assistant on media to the honourable minister of solid minerals development.