The Federal Government says it will unveil its manufactured in Nigeria Barite soon in order to strengthen the value chain of the country’s mineral resources and fulfill the President Muhammadu Buhari’s mandate to prioritize and develop seven important minerals in the mining roadmap.
The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Arc. Olamilekan Adegbite, disclosed this during a courtesy visit to the Ministry by a delegation from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), led by the Executive Secretary, Ogbonnaya Orji.
The Minister noted that the Ministry has succeeded in achieving the development of barite from extraction, milling and bagging stages to support local industries, as well as for export, adding that the Nigeria bagged barite has “Proudly Nigeria’ as it’s logo.
Adegbite stated that the Ministry is working at updating and upgrading its ICT infrastructure to enable it link the 10 agencies in the Ministry to ensure that all data of royalties paid and funds received would be properly monitored and uploaded to the Ministry’s server for online real time accessibility
Speaking,the Minster of State, Dr. Uchechukwu Sampson Ogah, appreciated NEITI for the visit, noting that the collaboration between the Ministry and NEITI is of great importance as it would ensure mining accruals are transparently monitored.
In his remarks, the Executive Secretary, Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Ogbonnaya Orji said the purpose of the visit was to deepen relationship with the Ministry and share data that would enable the organisation report accurately and transparently the activities in the sector.
He noted that sharing information and data with NEITI would attract investors as well as build confidence in the mining sector. He therefore, requested that the Ministry’s website be uploaded regularly to enable would be investors get the right information from the Ministry’s web page.
