- Build Indigenous Capacity in Mining, Expert Urges FG
The quest of the Federal Government to diversify the economy through the mining industry will not produce the desired result if deliberate efforts are not made to build indigenous capacity in the sector, Technical Director, Geocardinal Engineering Services Limited, Adeyemo Titilope, has said.
Speaking to journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, Titilope acknowledged that the government had made serious efforts in developing the mining sector in the last four years but added that the gains would not produce tangible results except the indigenous capacity was propped up.
According to the mining expert, the nation’s mining industry is still dominated by artisanal miners and junior companies whose capacity need to be bolstered in order to reap the benefits of the diversification into the mining sector.
Titilope said, “Some of the people that are working in mining don’t have the technical know-how. They don’t know how to do exploration and some of their activities are polluting the environment. The government needs to enhance the capacity of artisanal miners who dominate mining in the country.
“We need to prepare the human capacity before we get worried about investment capital. Artisanal miners’ capacity needs to be developed; the capacity of professional miners and government officials that oversee mining have to be developed.
“There is a lot we need to learn from Canada, Australia, South Africa and other jurisdictions where mining has advanced. These countries have the human capacity to run their mining sectors, unlike Nigeria where the capacity is very low.”
Speaking on the failure of the country to attract major mining companies across the world to invest in Nigeria, Titilope said with a poor regulatory environment, it was difficult for major mining companies to trust Nigeria.
According to him, other factors hampering the country from attracting major investors include lack of adequate human capacity, poor infrastructure development and lack of bankable data, which the government had sought recently to address through the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency.
The mining expert also blamed confusion between state governments and the Federal Government on who did what in the mining sector as a strong factor that discouraged major operators from looking the way of Nigeria.
