President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has said Nigeria’s estimated $700 billion mineral wealth must translate into jobs, thriving local businesses and improved livelihoods for Nigerians, as the country deepens mining cooperation with the United States.
The President said his administration would not allow Nigeria to remain merely an exporter of raw minerals, insisting that investments in the sector must increasingly cover processing, refining and manufacturing within the country.
Tinubu stated this on Thursday in a message posted on his verified X handle, @officialABAT, while welcoming an agreement signed between Nigeria and the United States to deepen American investment in the country’s mining sector.
The agreement was signed on Wednesday at the Nigeria Mission House in New York by the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, and the United States Deputy Secretary of State, Christopher Landau, on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly.
‘Under our Renewed Hope administration, Nigeria remains open to partnerships that deliver meaningful benefits at home and create opportunities for our people.
‘I welcome the agreement signed in New York by the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, and US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau to deepen American investment in Nigeria’s mining sector and help unlock the potential of our mineral resources, estimated at about $700 billion’, Tinubu said.
The President said his administration had, from inception, deliberately sought to change the structure of the mining industry by moving the country away from simply extracting and exporting raw minerals.
According to him, the government tied the issuance of new mining licences to local value addition while intensifying efforts to attract investments into domestic mineral processing and refining.
‘From the beginning, we made a deliberate choice to move Nigeria away from simply extracting and exporting raw minerals. We tied new mining licences to local value addition and have worked to attract investment into processing and refining here at home’, he said.
Tinubu said the policy was already yielding results, with new processing plants being established, billions of dollars in investment commitments entering the sector and growing investor interest in Nigeria’s critical minerals.
He said the next phase of the administration’s programme would be to deepen development across the entire mining value chain, covering exploration, extraction, processing, refining and manufacturing.
The President stressed that Nigerians must derive tangible benefits at every stage of the process, particularly through employment, skills acquisition and opportunities for indigenous businesses.
‘At every stage, Nigerians must benefit. Our geologists, engineers and technicians must find work. Our young people must acquire new skills. Local contractors, transporters and suppliers must have opportunities to build businesses’, Tinubu said.
He added that locating processing facilities closer to mining areas should stimulate industrial activity, attract infrastructure and improve livelihoods in communities hosting the country’s mineral resources.
Tinubu said the administration was also determined to change the composition of Nigeria’s mineral exports by ensuring that more resources were processed locally before being sold on the international market.
‘We are also changing what Nigeria sells to the world. We want to process more here, manufacture more here and export higher-value products’, he said.
The President described the agreement with Washington as a further step in the reforms already undertaken by his administration, saying Nigeria would welcome partners willing to bring capital, technology and expertise while creating value within the country.
‘We welcome partners who bring capital, technology and expertise and are prepared to create value with us here in Nigeria’, he said.
The bilateral framework covers cooperation in geological data and exploration, mineral development and processing, infrastructure and technical capacity.
Alake said at the signing that the two countries would move towards identifying viable projects and mobilising investments under the agreement.
US Deputy Secretary of State Landau also described Nigeria and the United States as partners, saying Washington was interested in building on the momentum in relations between the two countries and supporting Nigeria’s economic growth.
Tinubu maintained that the ultimate measure of the reforms would be their impact on Nigerians and mining communities.
‘Our mineral wealth must create Nigerian jobs, grow Nigerian businesses and bring greater prosperity to the communities where these resources are found.
‘This is how we turn the reforms we have made into opportunities for every Nigerian’, the President said.