The Minister of Mines and Steel, Mr Olamilekan Adegbite, has said that the ministry is seeking more funds to curb illegal mining in Nigeria and increase investment in the mining sector to generate more funds in order to grow the sector and contribute significantly to the country’s economy.
Adegbite was responding to Lawmakers during the ministry’s budget defence before the House Committee on Steel Development, at the House of Representatives in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
He also informed the Lawmakers that efforts are being made to complete work at the Ajeokuta Steel Company in Kogi state, north central Nigeria.
The minister also noted that the ministry was working on scaling up small scale mining.
He noted that more funds are also needed to reduce insecurity in the mining sector.
” For 2023, 3.26 billion naira has been allocated for the ministry and it’s ten agencies.
“We need to do more drilling. We need to do more explanation and we need more money,” Adegbite stated.
The minister added that, for the ministry to achieve all its set goals, it should be properly funded subsequently.
The House Committee on Steel advised the ministry of Mines and Steel to think outside the box and find new strategies to harness its agencies, to enhance the Nigerian economy.
The Chairman, Committee On Steel Development, Mr. Abdullahi Ibrahim Ali, made the call at the 2023 Budget Hearing With The Federal Ministry Of Mines And Steel Development in Abuja.
“Hon. Minister, we are witnesses that Nigeria today is facing the most uncertain economic realities and setback by unprecedented debt profile due to the nation’s over dependence on oil sector and the petroleum industry.
“Government must therefore take up alternative initiatives, think outside the box to harness other resources available to the country in order to remain economically afloat,” Ali said.
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He said that the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development was a significant partner, in the government’s plan to achieve economic prosperity and development of Nigeria, noting that “no economy can survive without its mines and steel industry functioning optimally.
“As we can see in the performance of different national steel industries like China, the United States, Germany and other nations which has played enormous roles in the growth and sustenance of their economy, for Nigeria to become a viable and productive economy, we must as a matter of urgency revive our steel sector and aggressively introduce modern technologies in the mining and steel development industry,” he said.
The Chairman pointed out that “the steel industry remains the backbone of modern society and serves as a key enabler in the economy; by providing the basic raw materials for public infrastructure, development projects, and key sectors such as housing and real estate development, energy, automotive, defence, and various small & medium enterprises engaged in downstream engineering and fabrication business.”
Hon. Ali also said that the most important issue the Committee would like to raise during the Budget Hearing was how to revive the steel industry in Nigeria and how the 2023 Budget of the Ministry is key to the revival of the steel industry, as well as the efforts being made to bring Ajaokuta Steel Company back on track.
“We all know that the Ajaokuta steel project was conceived as a strategic industry, a job creator and a foreign exchange saver and earner. It was envisaged that the project would generate a myriad of socio-economic benefits and increase the productive capacity of the nation through its linkages to other industrial sectors and provide materials for infrastructural development, technology acquisition, human capacity building, income distribution, regional development and employment generation. The company was meant to generate important upstream and downstream industrial and economic activities that are critical to the diversification of our economy and was tagged as the “Bedrock of Nigeria’s industrialisation”. Whether the country is on the right track for achieving this lofty vision is left to be said,” Ali added.
