At the Nigerian Solid Minerals Development Fund, we had several on-going projects at the time our supervising ministry, the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development was blessed with the appointment of Dr. Oladele Alake as the Honourable Minister. Determined to promote indigenous entrepreneurship in the mining industry to lead to the emergence of the country’s elite category of junior miners, we had initiated talks with the Africa Finance Corporation to raise funds to fund emerging mining companies through a highly competitive selection process.
The Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Initiative, PAGMI had taken off truly by organising artisanal gold producers to sell their wons to the government. It was already clear that mobilising gold from this set of producers, refining them and selling to the apex financial regulatory authority held a lot of promise to the management of the foreign exchange management and the wisdom of keeping gold for future intervention.
In Ebonyi State, our collaboration with the state government to facilitate salt mining was making a lot of headway and we were reaching out to geological survey agencies all over the world to sensitise them to the opportunities offered by Nigeria’s search for real time, geological data on over 44 minerals. Right from the first encounter with the Honourable Minister during the presentation of our status report, we found a passionate, dogged, committed leader conscious of the great trust
The Minister assured SMDF of his support and has walked his talk every inch of the way. When it was time to launch the SMDF and Africa Finance Corporation’s Strategic Collaboration to address the dearth of expertise and funding for early stage mining projects, Dr. Alake was there to demonstrate his conviction in the feasibility of the project to pave the way for financial close. Launching the AFC-SMDF Investment Manual, Dr. Alake brought his legendary gravitas to bear on the solution to a continental challenge. Many Nigerians were surprised to read the story on the presentation of gold bars to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
This game-changing development was masterfully orchestrated by the Honourable Minister to get the President’s full backing to a policy that has been on the shelves. The National Gold Purchase Programme, designed to increase the country’s reserve and boost the value of the Naira, involves collaboration with the London Bullion Market Association to ensure compliance with its Delivery Standards. With the minister’s backing, SMDF was able to make history: we delivered the first commercial transaction under the National Gold Purchase Programme.
This programme is an all winners’ game. While the Central Bank opened its gold reserves, the thousands of artisans who sold to the programme exchanged over N6billion in commercial transactions. At the SMDF, we aligned strongly with the minister’s agenda for comprehensive, nationwide database of geological data. It is one of the opportunities we offer to numerous partners who wish to support our country’s efforts to sanitise and reposition her mineral sector.
GeoScan, XCalibur and many others trust SMDF to interface with the Ministry on such matters, hence the high level of seriousness of the Honourable Minister in backing our initiatives on the GeoScan agreement.
As the Honourable Minister reflects on his one year in office on the occasion of date of birth, it is indeed, for the Ministry of Solid Minerals and its agencies, a double- double. For we have not just a minister but one whose words open doors and whose integrity and influence has no parallel. This is just the beginning of many first to come. Congratulations!
Source: ALAKE ON RESCUE MISSION, a publication of the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, MoSMD.
