Mining can address Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit, says Minister

Nigeria’s huge infrastructure deficit can be addressed by sourcing and utilising the raw material inputs from the country’s mining sector, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, said on Thursday.

He said this while delivering his keynote address at the Nigerian Economic Summit Group webinar titled ‘New normal – opportunities for the Nigerian Mining Industry’.

The minister stated that the country needed to take advantage of the immense opportunities associated with the mining industry to industrialise the nation, The Punch said.

Adegbite said there was no doubt that the mining industry was going to become more important to the future of the world as the globe currently moves towards digitisation and automation.

He said, “Minerals constitute a large portion of the inputs used in the production of mobile phones, laptops, ICT gadgets, batteries, solar panels.

“Within Nigeria, our huge infrastructure deficit can be addressed by sourcing and utilising our domestic raw material inputs from the mining industry.

“Our local industries also need to stop importing many inputs that are readily available from our mining industry.”

Adegbite observed that the first 60 years of Nigeria’s 88-year-old mining industry was immensely successful, as it provided the stimulus for the growth and development of the economy, including infrastructural and municipal development.