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| Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi |
The Federal Executive
Council has approved a new roadmap for the growth and development of the nation’s
mining sector and the renaming of the Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals.
Media
report continues:
The
ministry will now be known as Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development.
The
Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Kayode Fayemi, disclosed this when he
addressed State House correspondents on the outcome of the Federal Executive
Council (FEC) meeting, which was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.
According
to him, the new roadmap, which is built on the old roadmap, seeks to grow the
contribution of mining to the Gross Domestic Products (GDP) in line with the
Federal Government’s determination to further diversify the nation’s economy.
He
said that under the new roadmap, there would be an independent regulatory
agency for the mining industry as being advocated for by the operators in the
mining sector.
“What
it seeks to do is to grow the contribution of mining to the GDP (Gross Domestic
Product) in line with the president’s vision to diversify our revenue base in
the country, stressing the place of agriculture and mining in that.
“What
distinguishes this roadmap, which builds on the old roadmap that was approved
by the council in 2012, is its determination to set up an independent
regulatory agency, which investors have been insisting on that the ministry
which has been serving as facilitator should also not be the one that regulate
them,’’ he said.
The
Minister announced that the Inspectorate, Environmental Compliance and the
Artisans and Small Scale units of the ministry would form part of the
regulatory agency.
He
said that in the new roadmap, there would be partnership between the federal
and state governments.
He
said that the partnership would address the persistent misunderstanding and
conflicts between the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development and
states’ Ministries for Mines.
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