The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Arc. Olamilekan Adegbite has insisted that all mined mineral resources must have value addition before they are exported.
Adegbite disclosed this in Abuja at a photo exhibition by Fawole Oluwadamilare who did a visual documentation of the minister’s activities in one year.
The minister said, “In the long term, we are working on the downstream policy. Essentially, we are saying nobody should export raw minerals out of the country without adding value. Whatever you mine, you need to do some beneficiation/processing locally before you export. That is where we can get people into the value-chain thereby creating jobs for our people.”
Adegbite noted that in the short term the Federal government is focusing on the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP) to provide palliatives and direction to artisanal miners who have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The artiste, Oluwadamilare (Drey) said it has been an exciting time documenting the ministers activities in the past one year.