The federal government and the Commonwealth Secretariat have held discussions about deep sea mining in Nigeria’s coastal waters.
The discussions were held when the minister of solid minerals development, Dr. Oladele Alake, led a Nigerian delegation to pay a courtesy visit to the Commonwealth Secretariat in London recently.
Special adviser to the minister, Kehinde Bamigbetan, who revealed this in a statement made available to journalists in Abuja yesterday, said the visit was in line with Minister Alake’s determination to mobilise international assistance to position Nigeria’s solid minerals sector to compete globally.
Alake told the Commonwealth team that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had identified the solid minerals sector as a pillar of Nigeria’s current efforts to diversify the economy.
This, he remarked, led the ministry to develop a. Seven Point Agenda that include the establishment of a solid minerals company, gathering of Big Data on mineral reserve to de-risk investments, improved security to keep the mines safe and socio-economic development of mining communities through effective community development agreements.
Alake also called on the Commonwealth, as an institution that had developed expertise over many years, to support the Tinubu administration’s efforts.
Nigeria, a former British colony, is a member of the 54-member Commonwealth.
In his response, the senior director, Trade, Oceans and Natural Resources Department, Paul Kautoke commended the delegation for visiting the Commonwealth secretariat.
He said Nigeria, as a coastal country, could explore the profitable prospects of extraction of deep sea minerals such as copper, cobalt, nickel, gold and rare earth elements.
He noted that many Commonwealth countries in the Pacific region were making inroads in the deep sea mining subsector, promising that the Commonwealth could assist to develop a policy for Nigeria.
Also addressing the forum, director, Natural Resources, Victor Kitange; Trade and Investment adviser, Opeyemi Abebe; economic adviser, Trade, Ocean and Natural Resources, Daniel Wilder, and adviser, Ocean Governance, Allison Swaddling, spoke about the progress achieved in deep sea mining and expressed concern that African countries were lagging behind.
On his part, Swaddling said there are online training programmes developed by the department, while Abebe, who recalled working with the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council capacity development, offered to provide similar assistance to get Nigeria on the issue of deep sea mining.
Alake said the discussion had brought a new dimension to mineral development and promised that the ministry would study the dimension of deep sea mining in collaboration with other ministries and put together a country proposal for further consideration.