FG Charms Investors with Incentives at London Expo

Folalumi Alaran in Abuja

Seamless transfer of profits and duty waiver on imported mining machinery were among incentives offered investors by Nigeria at the Resourcing Tomorrow annual exhibition and conference held in London recently.

Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, who led Nigerian delegates to the event unveiled the package in his address to participants announcing to global mining companies the country was ready for investment.

Alake impressed participants at the opening ceremony with the country’s investment breakthroughs in processing minerals, citing over $2billion inflow to lithium and rare earth ores projects in the last two years.

The foreign direct investments, he argued, were the outcomes of the policy on value addition being driven by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration to stop pit to port export and stimulate local beneficiation.

His words: “Since last year, companies such as Canmax Technologies, Jiuling Lithium, Avatar New Energy Nigeria Limited, and Asba Group have collectively invested over 1.3 billion US dollars in lithium processing projects across Nigeria. These are not speculative ventures; they are bricks, mortar, and machinery.

“And just outside Abuja, the federal capital of Nigeria, construction is underway for a 50-million-dollar lithium processing plant, the first in a network of industrial clusters that will extend through Nasarawa, Kogi, Kwara, and Ebonyi states.

“On November 19, this year, Nigeria broke new grounds in the processing of rare earths ores with the groundbreaking of the $400million rare earth plant of the Hasetins Group.

“It is expected to be ready in 15 months. Also, a multi-billion-dollar iron ore to steel project using the latest technology is in the pipeline.”

He said the administration established the Mining Marshals to enforce the mining law and protect miners and is strengthening this security architecture with satellite technology that will track mining operations nationwide.

The minister presented the Nigeria Solid Minerals Company as the government’s partner of choice for joint venture business that leverages on mineral assets inherited from the Nigerian Mining Corporation to meet partners’ demands.

According to him: “The NSMC embodies our philosophy of shared prosperity through shared investment. It functions as a sovereign partner, co-investing in high-value mineral projects, de-risking exploration, and catalyzing downstream processing”.

Assuring over 1,000 participants at the Resourcing Tomorrow conference that the government has done the needful to prepare the solid minerals sector for investment, the minister said the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency and exploration investors have covered over 80 percent of the country with geological mapping.

Besides, he said the Tinubu administration has finalised the Solid Minerals Export Guidelines to align the country’s export system with international traceability, environmental and governance standards.

Addressing concerns of the conference on the declining delivery of global supply chain systems, Alake advocated local value addition in source countries as the win-win solution.

He narrated how the decision of ministers of mining in Africa to form the Africa Minerals Support Group is influencing the formulation of local beneficiation policies across the continent.

Drawing examples of domestic integration from Nigeria, Alake said several states in Nigeria run mining companies, thus developing a sense of belonging.

He also cited the signing of 427 community development agreements between Nigerian communities and mining companies as a key strategy to ensure that economic, social and governance principles are applied in Nigeria’s mining sector.