Mining: Local operators to benefit from N30 billion intervention fund – Minister
Kaduna State Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources, Aminat Sijuwade; Chairman SIBI Nigeria Limited, Arc Nuhu Wya; Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi; and an official of the company, Ralph Emnor; during the Minister’s inspection of stone quarrying operations at SIBI’s mining site in Kaduna…on Tuesday
A stone cutting machine operator being hailed by the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr kayode Fayemi during his inspection of stone quarrying operations at SIBI mining site, Kaduna on Tuesday. The Minister is flanked by the Chairman SIBI Nigeria Limited, Arc Nuhu Wya (left) and Managing Director, Engr Taura Wya (right).
Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi (middle) listening to the chairman Gentred Energy, Mr Ubay Watsa; during the Minister’s tour of the Birnin Gwari Gold field in Kaduna State…on Tuesday
Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi, with officials of Kaduna State Mining Development Company, during his inspection of construction work at the Gold Ore Processing Plant in Birnin Gwari, Kaduna State…on Tuesday.
The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi has said that the ministry would commit part of the N30 billion Mining Intervention Fund to support local operators in the country in a bid to assist them scale up their operations and bridge importation gap.
The Minister stated this on Tuesday in Kaduna, while inspecting quarrying facilities at CIBI Nigeria Limited’s quarry site in Buruku, Kaduna State.
Dr Fayemi said part of the fund would be drawn from the World Bank loan and the N30 billion Mining Intervention Fund approved by the Federal Executive Council last year, among others.
He said the ministry has entered into a partnership with the Bank of Industry (BOI) to offer loan facilities from the intervention funds to serious operators who are already producing and who require assistance to increase the scope of their operation.
He stated that companies who are into production of quality tiles would benefit from the fund in order to position them to increase their production, compete favourably and help reduce dependence on imported tiles.
The Minister said: “We are working with the BOI to disburse the loans as soon as the intervention funds are released to serious tile producers across the country,” he said.
He said that companies like CIBI Nigeria Limited would have been able to produce more than the 200,000 square metres it currently produced annually from dimension stones, if adequate resources, including finance, equipment and others were available.
Fayemi said that Nigeria needed about four million square metres of tiles annually, adding that all the local tile producers could only produce less than a million annually.
He lamented that the bulk of tiles being used in Nigeria were imported from Italy, China and India, stressing that there is an urgent need to support local operators as captured in Mining roadmap drawn by the ministry.
“We are endowed with lots of mineral resources; we have dimension stones everywhere but not exploited; there is no stone we don’t have in Nigeria,” he said.
The Chairman of SIBI Nigeria Limited, Arc Nuhu Wya, urged government to support its project, as there were more demands for tiles but it lacked sufficient capital to expand the business. Wya said the company usually received market orders from its customers two months before production.
“If investment put in oil industry is replicated in solid minerals, Nigeria does not need to depend on oil as its mainstay because we are blessed with mineral stones abundantly,’’ he said.
