Alake’s Avalanche of Reforms

By Keem Abdul

Compared to the sheer scale of the mineral deposits (solid, liquid or gaseous) domiciled under Nigeria’s soil, the level of their exploitation by relevant agencies and institutions barely scratches the surface.

According to every indicator, Nigeria possesses a staggering variety of solid minerals, each of them in considerable quantities. Among these are rare and exotic gems such as columbite, tantalite, beryl, aquamarine, lithium and tourmaline – as well as more familiar-sounding, but no less-valuable gems such as gold, coal, tin, lead, zinc, limestone, granite, laterite, barite, gypsum, kaolin, marble, iron ore and wolframite (also known as tungsten). Collectively known as coltan, the first two aforementioned minerals – columbite and tantalite – are used to make niobium and tantalum, a rare element in the manufacture of electronics, and therefore highly-sought after, especially by manufacturing companies in the highly-industrialized economies of the world.

In fact, the indicators say that at least 44 of the world’s most highly-priced minerals are domiciled in Nigeria – and they are collectively worth an estimated $750 billion!

The wide discrepancy between the over-abundance of these natural endowments in Nigeria, and the low level of exploitation (and its consequent impact on the country’s socio-economic fortunes) speaks, in the view of experts and critical players in the sector, to the well-documented deficiencies that have over the years plagued Nigeria’s political economy. These deficiencies are too numerous (and too deep-seated) to recount here. Suffice it to mention just two of the most obvious – namely, One, the culture of over-dependence on revenues from crude oil (which, since the advent of the ‘oil boom’ of the 1970s, has been the nation’s economic mainstay, having displaced both agriculture and solid minerals from their former prominence in the country’s economic scheme of things), and Two, the seeming lack of political will on the part of the nation’s policymakers, and their failure to wean the economy away from that over-dependency, in spite of the perennial sound bites about ‘diversifying the economy’ and the endless ruminations about this or that resource becoming ‘the new oil’, and so forth.

The resolve by the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to rewrite Nigeria’s solid minerals narrative (as a way of kick-starting the much-talked-about diversification of the economy) concretized into a programme, upon the President’s assumption of office in May 2023, to rejig both the mandate and day-to-day operations of the Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, as well as its long-term projections, in a bid to actualize its potentials as a catalyst of Nigeria’s economic resurgence.

Established in 1985, the Ministry’s key objective is to unlock the economic potentials of the solid minerals sub-sector in Nigeria as a spur for the rapid and sustainable development of the country. In setting up the Ministry, the FG had hoped to facilitate the transformation of the country’s minerals and metals sector for sustainable industrial growth by exploiting these endowments in an environmentally-sustainable manner, as well as to position the sector for significant contribution to its overall GDP. It was for these reasons that the FG charged the Ministry with the following responsibilities:

Policy Formulation; the provision of relevant information and knowledge to enhance investment in the sector; the regulation of operations in the sector; and
the generation of appropriate revenues for the government.
The Ministry is also responsible for the execution of regulations guiding the various stages of prospecting, quarrying, and mining, as well as the handling, sale and consumption of solid minerals in the country – via the issuance of permits, licenses, leases and collection of rents, fees and royalties.

Perhaps mindful of the fact that the Ministry and the sector it oversees have so far failed to meet all reasonable expectations (for which reason Nigeria’s economy continues to languish under the weight of its unsustainable mono-cultural profile), the Tinubu administration decided to think out of the proverbial box, both in terms of its approach to the needs and obligations of the Ministry, and – even more critically – its choice of a Minister to oversee the sector.

At first glance, Dr. Oladele Henry Alake would seem like an unlikely choice for the job. A journalist by profession who built a career in the realm of public communications, information and ideas, he was seen by most observers as being out of his depth in the somewhat arcane world of subterranean science and economics.

Surely a geologist or an engineer would have been better suited to the job? these observers wondered aloud.

But while their concerns were not entirely out of place (Alake had, afterall, previously served President Tinubu in purely media-related in addition to his various roles as a media entrepreneur), it was precisely because of his ability to entertain and navigate the nuances of ideas that the government needs at this time, that made him a natural pick for a Ministry which had gone about its business in much the same way over the years – untroubled by high expectations, and content to plod along in the shadow of almighty Crude Oil, all the while collecting periodic government subventions, paying salaries and … doing little else.

Since his assumption of office as Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake has set about his work with an assiduousness that the sector has not experienced in a long time. He has come to embody – in the manner with which he approaches his mandate, and in the relationships and partnerships he has managed to forge between the Ministry and key stakeholders, including would-be investors, both local and international – a key philosophy of the Tinubu administration’s economic plan. In the tortured aftermath of the removal of subsidies on petroleum products and the adoption of a single exchange rate for the naira, the administration has been forced to put on its thinking cap, to leave no stone unturned, and no options unexplored, in the quest to boost the revenues of government and enhance its ability to fulfil its budgetary obligations. The government also recognizes that, now more than ever, the solid minerals sector is critical to Nigeria’s economic survival, no thanks to ongoing changes in the global oil market, the pushback against climate change, and the shift towards green energy.

Alake’s mission at the Solid Affairs Ministry is encapsulated in his 7-Point Agenda – a developmental blueprint which has, since its unveiling earlier this year, received the enthusiastic blessings of the Presidency and the Minister’s colleagues on the Federal Executive Council, as well as the critical buy-in of Ministry staffers, investors, the over two million operators in the field – comprising over 633 small-scale companies and 251,500 registered miners – as well as local communities. The blueprint, which he calls the ‘Agenda for the Transformation of the Solid Minerals for International Competitiveness and Domestic Prosperity’, entails the following:

The establishment of the Nigerian Solid Minerals Corporation;
Gathering nationwide geological data to de-risk investment;
Securing the mining environment through the establishment of a corps of Mining Marshals;
Combating illegal mining through co-operatives and law enforcement;
Marketing our solid minerals to attract foreign direct investment;
Value addition through policies promoting the processing of raw minerals; and
Community empowerment through remediation.
In Dr. Alake’s estimation, the Nigerian Solid Minerals Corporation, a key highlight of the Agenda, is the sector’s answer to crude oil’s NNPC (the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation), as Nigeria seeks to assert its presence in this space by replicating its strategic positioning in the petroleum sector. “The … Corporation,” he said then, “will …secure partnership investment agreements with big multinational companies worldwide to leverage on the attractive investment-friendly regime operating in the country to secure massive Foreign Direct Investment for the mining sector.” As a corporate body in the mold of the newly-privatized NNPCL, the Corporation is set to operate subsidiaries doing business in the seven priority areas that require immediate intervention and focus.

Another highlight of the Agenda was the formation of a security tax force in a bid to combat illegal mining and smuggling. Since October this year, this force – also known as the Mine Police, which is sourced from the Nigeria Police and specially trained to detect illegal mining and apprehend offenders – has been, proactively addressing high risk incidences of breaches of the nation’s Mining Laws.

Other aspects of the Alake Agenda have set about addressing several factors that have long been the bane of the sector’s growth and development – such as inefficient geo-data; weak implementation and enforcement; poor environmental, safety, and health policies; fragility and conflict; unregulated artisanal mining; low technical capacity; lack of access to financing; weak inter-governmental and inter-agency coordination; and weak federal/state relations.

As he crosses a significant threshold in his stewardship in a sector that is set to gain in importance as a catalyst for Nigeria’s economic recovery in the coming years, observers are already saying the sector has never had it so good – all thanks to a man of ideas and action in equal measure.

Well done, Dr. Dele Alake!

• Keem Abdul, publisher and writer, hails from Lagos. He can be reached via +2348038795377 or Akeemabdul2023@gmail.com