All illegal miners in the nation are required to leave their sites immediately or face significant consequences, according to the Federal Government. The warning was given by Mr. Dele Alake, Minister of Solid Minerals Development, at the graduation ceremony and starter pack presentation to 30 graduating trainees under Batch 3 of the Ministry’s Programme on “Gemstone and Jewellery Master Training and Empowerment” under the Mineral Support for Economic Diversification, or MinDiver, a World Bank supported project.
Alake said the skill acquisition programme was part of the ‘Renewed Hope’agenda of President Bola Tinubu noting that the graduation was a fulfilment of Tinubu’s promise during his presidential campaign to create jobs massively for the youth.
He also commended Min-Diver for the efforts made so far to add value to the lives of Nigerians through the intensive training which was done by dedicated, experienced and committed experts to transfer the knowledge and skills into young Nigerians who will in turn train other Nigerians and create jobs for them in all the 774 Local Government Areas of the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.
He also acknowledged that the programme had earlier produced 40 Master Jewellers who were trained between 2021 and 2022, and the pioneer set of 70 Master Jewellers will be a faculty that would train would-be jewellers in the 774 local governments of Nigeria.
However, the Minister called on state governments to partner with the Ministry by sponsoring at least 10 youths per local government for training to acquire this highly profitable skills. He assured them that the faculty will be mobilised to any state that is ready to empower their youths to impart their technical knowledge and demonstrate the procedures for using solid minerals to embellish the beauty of our people.
He said: “Looking at the result of this seemingly small but extremely significant gesture of graduating students that have gone through the crucibles of learning the art of skill acquisition, it rebuilds hope for our country Nigeria. I commend your efforts, initiatives, focus, and sense of responsibility. You have gone through the process of skill acquisition in this very critical sector.
“Nigeria with its large population has appetite for jewelry and it is imperative to create a local jewelry industry to meet substantially local demands, for quality jewelry products, to increase import substitution, create jobs and boost the export value of Nigeria’s gemstones and jewelry.
“Nigeria is abundantly blessed with variety of mineral resources, among the minerals identified are varieties of precious and semi-precious stones. Some of the most popular Nigeria gemstones include sapphire, aquamarine, beryl, emerald, tourmaline, ruby, garnet, amethyst , and zircon, which are located across the length and breadth of Nigeria and are used to adorn designs but are sadly illegally exported.
“Now let me use this opportunity to send a very stern and strong warning to the entire nation that with Mr President there is a new sheriff in town and illegal mining would be curbed. Illegal exportation of our gemstones, critical minerals would no longer be tolerated by this administration.
“My Ministry is currently putting in place strategies, tactics and logistics, and we are working very assiduously and closely with the security agencies with the view of designing a very solid and enduring formula for combating illegal mining and illegal exportation of all our critical minerals in this country. In due course the details would be unfolded to the public. But I am just using this opportunity to send a strong warning to those currently engaged in illegal mining in Nigeria that henceforth it would be no longer be business as usual.
“We must harness all our critical resources for the benefits of our nation. Today, it is a known fact all over the world that hydrocarbons are on the downward trend in the global international trade meaning all that are contingent to our development, GDP substantially is no longer what it used to be and is on the decline. So what do we do? We have to shift attention to non-oil exports, and believe me, Nigeria is sitting on one of the most enormous amount of mineral resources in the world. There is virtually no state that does not have one mineral resources or the other that is sought after in the global international market”.
He also lamented that Nigerians have neglected these resources that would have tremendously transformed the economy for oil.
According to him, “Necessarily and compulsorily attention is now focused on the non-oi exports, particularly, solid minerals and that is why the Ministry is now the focal point of generating substantial revenue and making contribution to the GDP of our country. In fact, I say with all emphasis and all sense of responsibility that solid Minerals is the next petroleum in Nigeria. We are not going to be exporting, exploring, excavating and carting away our solid minerals abroad. We are going to be adding local value and we are going to attract foreign investors into this industry and sector.
“However, one of the salient conditions is that the foreign investors will not just come and excavate our resources and minerals away, they must also do backward integration in terms of establishing the industries and factories that would add local value to our natural resources before being taken out and that would create more jobs, resources and revenue”.