Mines ministry reviews sectoral road map

The minister, Muhammed Sada, said at a media roundtable that the essence of the road map launched two years ago was “to give direction and to make sure that whatever we are doing is channeled in the right direction and make sure that in whatever we are doing we are moving toward progress.”
He said there is no state in the country without mineral resources, adding that the ministry is working on how to get the data for each local government and how individuals can get information on them on the internet, adding “One Local Government One Mineral resource is achievable.”
He said the roadmap was also developed to guide sector development in line with targets set for the ministry by tackling observed challenges that include, inadequate geo-science data needed to support mineral exploration by the private sector, inadequate mines fields infrastructure, illegal exploitation of minerals, smuggling of high value minerals and difficulties in accessing required capital finance mining among others.
The permanent secretary in the ministry, John Jegede, said the road map is aimed at addressing the sector in a holistic manner using the value chain approach.
“It focuses on the exploration, development, exploitation and marketing of mineral resources. It will be in tandem with the prevailing government policy which makes the private sector the owner and operator of solid minerals and metal projects with government facilitating and providing an enabling environment for development of the solid minerals sector,” he said.