The World Bank has finalized arrangements with the Federal Government to invest $123.5 million in the exploration of industrial minerals in the country.
A consultant at the Breton Woods institution, Vitor Carrieia, gave this hint on Tuesday in Abuja while unveiling the Industrial Minerals Roadmap that will guide the planned investments in the sub-sector of the economy.
Noting that Nigeria has no need to import industrial minerals in view of the abundant deposits across geo-political zones of the country, Carrieia, promised that the roadmap with five-year implementation period would be used to explore areas to use them as well as support government’s economic diversification agenda in the sub-sector.
He said: “We need geosciences data and legal framework to enable us work towards actualising the plan for Nigeria. This would make the government to diversify its economy.”
Speaking at the forum, the Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development, Abubakar Bwari, explained that the World Bank developed the document with a wide range of applications.
According to him, in order to explore its benefits to the fullest for the nation’s economic development, the Industrial Minerals Roadmap would be used in a variety of industries such as manufacturing, construction, agriculture, adding that it would help to facilitate also inter-sector linkages and import substitution.
The minister said: “In 2016, we launched a roadmap that seeks to build a world class minerals and mining ecosystem. This will serve targeted domestic and export markets as well as winning over domestic users.”
According to him, government’s desire is to implement strategies that could close the gap of the 626,921 yearly tonnes that currently exist in local production, costing the country $44.5 million yearly on importation.
Bwari pointed out that the variety of industrial minerals nationwide was enough for exploitation by local and foreign investors and help Nigeria to generate more foreign exchange for national development.
