Saudi Arabia Partners Nigeria on Mining Sector Development

Nigeria and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are to collaborate in enhancing the development of solid minerals as the world transitions from fossil fuels to cleaner energy.

This was made known by the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake during a meeting with his Saudi Arabian counterpart, Bandar AlKhorayef on the sidelines of the Future Minerals Forum (FMF) held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Dr Alake harped on the need to forge partnerships, as the global energy transition is contingent on critical minerals, which exist in abundance in Nigeria.

“We need a lot of investments in exploration, exploitation, extraction, processing, and local value addition. We realize that we must look at regions outside of Africa to collaborate, further consolidate, and enhance our capacity to explore and exploit the natural resources that we have. For us to maximally utilize, exploit, and derive maximum revenue for our own economic and infrastructural development, we need to have a very solid partnership with nations like Saudi Arabia”. he said.

Dr Alake emphasized investment in local value addition involving processing of solid minerals that will culminate in production and establishment of factories in Nigeria, to generate employment which will have a multiplier effect on the economy.

He reiterated the readiness of the Nigerian team to work with the Saudi Arabian counterpart to finetune and map out strategies on areas of collaboration within a specified time frame.

Throwing light on incentives for investment, Alake cited the policy of President Bola Tinubu on repatriation of profits by foreign investors, tax waivers on imported equipment specifically directed at the mining sector and a rejigged security architecture which he hinted will soon come on stream to effectively secure mining areas in the country.

Earlier, his Saudi Arabia counterpart Mr Bandar AlKhorayef shared the position of Nigeria on the fundamentals of diversifying the economy with emphasis on the mining sector.

Mr Bandar AlKhorayef said the collaboration is important and revealed that Saudi Arabia also priortises local value addition.