Sadly, the opposite is prevalent, going by the country’s poverty level. What the government does with such resources while retaining the tag of a poor country remains unanswered.
The Federal Government recently pleaded with the 36 state governors, under the aegis of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum , to urgently form mining companies and apply for mining licences.
The call by the Federal Government to the Nigeria Governors’ Forum is not new. Governors are simply not ready to do the work or create the environment when there is free money to be shared from oil revenue and VAT with little or no contribution from many of them. Nigeria’s mining value chain can be categorised according to the key activities in the sector – exploration and mining , processing and beneficiation , and marketing and transportation . Historically, only the upstream and downstream subsectors were active. However, the past five years, according to KPMG, have seen remarkable growth with more mining companies investing in the mid-stream subsector, by engaging in the processing, beneficiation and/or refining of minerals.
Ibrahim Garba, a former director-general of the Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office , says one of the challenges of the mining ministry is the lack of staff who understand the laws guiding the sector. He also said the country is not rich in mineral resources, urging Nigerians to remove the perception that it is. Garba also said Nigeria’s dependence on petroleum suppressed the growth of the mining sector.