Nigeria Plans N2.3trn Injections To Boost Mining, Other
Of this amount, the ministry expects N6 billion to boost its operations.
Adegbite spoke while highlighting the lofty plans for the sector which Covid-19 crisis has disrupted.
“The pandemic for instance, has limited our ability to go forward on the Ajaokuta Steel project, we are four to five months behind schedule according to government’s plans to resuscitate the complex before the pandemic,” he said.
This, he said, was specifically so because Russian experts who supposed to come for the technical audit of the complex could not come because of the pandemic and the ban on flight operations.
He added that the idea was for the experts to come into the country and be hosted for 12 weeks within which they were expected to do a proper audit of the Ajaokuta Steel Complex.
He said this had been put on hold until the lockdown occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic and the ban on air travel was lifted.
“When this is lifted and we think it is safe enough, these experts will come into the country and we will continue where we stopped.
He added that the Ajaokuta Project Presidential Implementation Team (APPIT) was, however, still working but that the audit was very important to it.
According to him, the technical audit report is necessary to enable the APPIT know the cost implication.
He added that because of the complexity of the Ajaokuta Steel Complex, online audit was not possible as people had to be physically present.
The minister added that government was, however, making efforts to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the sector.
“Now, government needs to come up with a response because the COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected our sector, as a lot of miners could not go to work for obvious reasons.
“The consequence of this is that the output is zero and a lot of miners had been impoverished, this, however, is not peculiar to the sector, because it goes all round.
“What the President Mohammadu Buhari-led administration has decided to do is to face this head-on, and that is why we have come up with post COVID-19 rescue operations.
“In this, the government proposes to spend N2.3 trillion, this is what the government intends to inject into the economy to counter the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.
The minister said that the money had been allotted to different sectors of the economy, including the solid mineral sector.
“A large chunk of the money had been allotted to the sector to help counter the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We intend to spend this fund and some other funds that are available to us to improve artisanal mining in the country and deepen our explorative projects,” Adegbite said.
He further said that the ministry was determined to take its roadshows around the world to attract foreign investors into the country post-COVD-19.
He gave the assurance that the government was working and putting measures in place to ensure that the country come up ahead of the COVID-19 curve to ensure that its effects are minimal.
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