The Chairman of the Mining Implementation and Strategy Team (MIST), Professor Gbenga Okunlola, has said that the mining sector has raised the nation’s revenue profile from N600 million to N3 billion since the approval of the mining roadmap 18 months ago.
Speaking in Jos, the Plateau State capital, at a sensitisation workshop on the mining roadmap with stakeholders, Professor Okunlola said the roadmap is set out to look at how to increase the current Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and to plan and generate employment opportunities.
He pointed out that Nigeria has been a mining country and that Jos, Enugu and Port Harcourt were practically built from mining until 1975 when mining declined because of the indigenization policy which saw the indigenes taking over the sector from the whites without being ready.
“The Federal Executive Council has approved the roadmap for mining in the country; that is what it aims to achieve in six months to two years, between two years and five years and from five years to 10 years,” he said.
He noted that the roadmap would increase the current Gross Domestic Product (GDP) saying, “even the target for this year has been surpassed since July.”
In his remarks, the President of Miners Association of Nigeria, Sani Shehu, said it is imperative to carry the host communities along in an effort to revamp the mining sector, noting that the communities could turn hostile if they are not carried along.
