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Nigeria to support mining firms that prioritise local content

Published

1 month ago

April 6, 2024

The Nigerian government says it is ready to support mining companies that prioritize local content in their operations. This was stated by the Minister of Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake.

During a site tour of Segilola Resources Operating Limited, an indigenous gold mining company in Ilesha, Osun State, Alake praised the hard work that went into building the facility and was happy that more than 95% of its staff are Nigerians, telling other operators to follow their lead.

To help the sector grow, he told mining companies to learn from the Segilola gold project’s use of best foreign practices. Alake praised the project’s large Nigerian component and said that the company had used local content in its hiring and purchasing practices.

According to a statement released by the minister’s special assistant on Friday in Abuja, the minister also praised the company’s determination to follow through with its goal, even though it faced many challenges at the start.

Alake said that the first step in putting his 7-point plan into action is to shift the mining sector. He stressed that his main goal has been to bring more attention to the mining sector in India and around the world.

“I have made sanitising the security of the mining environment one of the critical points of my 7-point agenda. Recently, as part of the process of actualising that policy, I had to unveil the creation of a mine marshal. They have a base in all the states of the country.

Multiple times, the Solid Minerals Minister has stressed how important value addition is as the new standard that all mining activities in the country must meet. While taking steps to encourage investment in the sector, Alake has also warned that potential investors will not be given mining licenses without adequate plans for adding value to minerals.

Nigeria made 121,204,122,000 metric tons of minerals in December 2021. From 5.6% in 1980 to just under 1% today, the mining industry’s share has steadily gone down. Though it was more than the 0.2% it added to Nigeria’s GDP in Q3 2021, the mining industry in Nigeria only added 0.3% to the country’s GDP in Q3 2022.

Botswana, Ghana, and South Africa, on the other hand, have mining industries that are much more important to their economies, contributing 16%, 12.6%, and 7.3%, respectively.

Related Topics:Featured mining firms Nigeria

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Nigeria’s inflation hits 28-year high of 33.69% in April

Published

1 day ago

May 16, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Nigeria’s consumer inflation reached a 28-year high of 33.69% in April, up from 33.20% in March, according to statistics agency figures released on Wednesday.

President Bola Tinubu’s administration has slashed petrol and energy subsidies and devalued the local naira currency twice.

To manage pricing pressures, the central bank has hiked interest rates twice this year, including the highest hike in almost 17 years. The central bank governor has stated that rates will remain high for as long as necessary to reduce inflation. The bank will host another rate-setting meeting next week.

When compared to the previous year, the inflation rate in April 2024 was 11.47 percentage points more than in April 2023, when it stood at 22.22 percent. This implies that the headline inflation rate has increased dramatically during the last year.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, food and nonalcoholic beverages remained the largest contributor to inflation in April. Food inflation, which accounts for most of the inflation basket, rose to 40.53% yearly from 40.01% in March.

Price pressures have left millions of Nigerians facing the biggest cost-of-living crisis in decades, as they fight to satisfy their most basic necessities.

Tinubu has offered a 35% salary increase for state personnel to alleviate pressure on government workers. To assist disadvantaged households, his government has resumed a direct cash transfer program and provided at least 42,000 tons of grains such as corn and millet.

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Uganda discusses power line to South Sudan with China’s Sinohydro

Published

2 days ago

May 15, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

According to the president’s office, Uganda is in negotiations with Sinohydro Corporation Limited of China to build a $180 million power transmission line that would enable Uganda to export electricity to South Sudan, which is severely short on energy.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni received a group led by Vice President of Sinohydro Corporation Yang Yi Xin on Monday as part of the negotiations, according to a late-morning statement from Museveni’s office.

The project, according to the statement, will entail building a new substation and expanding two existing ones in addition to building a 138-kilometre high-voltage transmission line to provide power to South Sudan.

“We are very much willing to help develop this project with the required finance if needed,” Xin was quoted as telling the president.

The statement stated that Museveni endorsed Sinohydro’s proposal to carry out the project. Uganda and South Sudan inked a power sales deal in June of last year, enabling Uganda to sell electricity to South Sudan.

To enable Uganda to export electricity to South Sudan, the two nations inked a power sales deal in June of last year. The Chinese firm is completing a $1.5 billion, 600-megawatt hydropower project on the River Nile in Northern Uganda that is meant to be the source for electricity exports to South Sudan.