The Ministry of Mines and Steel Development says the country’s quest to position the sector will not be achieved except it is recognised by the international mining community as a serious mining destination.
The Minister, Dr Kayode Fayemi made this known at the National Mining Summit and ConMin West Africa tagged; “Unearthing Nigeria’s Mining Sector’’ held in Abuja on Tuesday.
Fayemi said the ministry had enlisted critical stakeholders domestically and globally as enablers to achieve the ministry’s goal to be a mining destination.
The Tide source reports that one of the priority goals of the ministry is to position the mining sector to play a greater role in sustainably diversifying the country’s revenue base, creating jobs and fast-tracking industrialisation.
He said the African Mining Vision (AMV) that was adopted in 2009 during the African Union (AU) summit, which Nigeria domesticated, had helped Nigeria’s mining industry to find its bearing.
According to him, the AMV prescribes integrating mining into industrial and trade policy at regional level to encourage, collaborate and ensure healthy competition among mining countries.
He said the ministry considered it important to have a platform for bringing stakeholders in the sub region together to share ideas and compare notes on how to collaborate and ensure that available resources work for the people.
To this end, he said the ministry collaborated with Afrocet Montgomery, and worked with Deloitte to host the summit in order to take the lead in driving the achievement of the objectives of the AMV collectively and at the country level.
“It  is our vision to use this platform to place Nigeria prominently in the international mining calendar and to beneficially attract greater attention to our country as a Sub-region.
Also speaking, the Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Stock Exchange Mr Oscar Onyema, said the summit would provide a framework for sustainable and enabling environment for the continued growth and development of the mining sector.
Onyema said present statistics on the Nigerian mining sector indicated a tremendous opportunity for growth, as it accounts for 0.02 per cent of exports, 0.3 per cent of national employment and contributes 0.5 per cent an estimated N2 billion to the nation’s GDP.
He said this representation was low compared to global trends for the sector, adding that in 2015, the South African mining industry contributed 19.6 billion dollars toward the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), representing 7.1 per cent of overall GDP.
The NSE chairman said that Australian mining sector on the other hand contributed 114.9 billion dollars to GDP in 2016.
He said globally, the Metals and Mining sector was among the largest sectors, going by the number of companies in operation and its employment size.
“The role of the capital market in harnessing the Nigerian Mining sector’s potential and providing entrepreneurs with access to large, affordable funding for capital intensive projects could not be overemphasise.’’