Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development and Chairman of the Africa Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG), Dele Alake, has called for the establishment of a Mine Emergency and Community Development Fund to mitigate human and material losses arising from mine collapses across Africa.
Alake made the proposal at the third AMSG High-Level Roundtable on Critical Minerals Development, held on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York, United States.
READ ALSO: Lagos Launches Health Emergency Services Programme
He also proposed the establishment of an African safety facility to formalise artisanal mining and promote the formation of cooperatives among miners in member countries.
The Minister, who described recurring mine collapses across the continent as a major concern, cited recent tragedies in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic, as well as cases involving suspects detained for illegal mining in Nigeria who died in custody.
“Each time one of these tragedies occurs, I have had the painful responsibility, as the chairman of this Group, of conveying our condolences. But condolences, however sincere, cannot be the limit of continental solidarity,” Alake said.
He said behind every mining casualty was a family that could lose its breadwinner, children forced out of school and communities left to cope with disasters without adequate support.
Alake also defended artisanal and small-scale miners, noting that they support millions of livelihoods across Africa while supplying minerals to domestic and international markets.
He urged African governments to formalise artisanal mining rather than criminalise miners, stressing the need to provide geological guidance, basic safety systems and credible emergency response mechanisms.
“If AMSG can mobilise governments, financiers and investors around the billion-dollar mineral corridors, we should also be capable of mobilising expertise and resources to prevent miners from entering unsupported pits without geological guidance, basic safety systems or credible emergency response,” he said.
The minister also signed the Continental Integration and Economic Assurance Declaration (CIEAD), aimed at providing political assurance for the coordination of bilateral and multilateral projects across Africa.
According to him, the declaration would facilitate predictable regional infrastructure and processing investments while encouraging governments to collaborate on continental projects.
African Industrial Development
The Vice President, Kashim Shettima, who chaired the event, urged AMSG to champion African industrial development through cooperation with foreign companies and governments based on shared values and mutual benefits.
Shettima said no foreign government could protect Africa’s interests better than African countries themselves, stressing that the continent’s mineral resources should be harnessed to drive modernisation and improve living standards.
The roundtable also featured discussions involving experts from regional agencies, international institutions and leaders in the mining industry.
Chief Executive Officer of the Africa Finance Corporation, Samaila Zubairu, commended AMSG, saying African countries could no longer delay industrialisation if they must feed, house and clothe an estimated one billion people over the next 24 years.
He called for stronger regional collaboration, noting that individual countries could not tackle the scale of Africa’s development challenges alone.
