The Ministry of Mines and Steel Development has received the first set of geological data that will attract investors into the mining sector.
During the handing over ceremony of the acquired data and images of airborne high resolution magrad survey to the Nigeria Geological Survey Agency, NGSA, (a parastatal of the Ministry), the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Mines and Steel Develpt.; Dr. Mary Ogbe explained that ”the Survey is one of many reform activities planned and executed by the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development as government incentive to de-risk the mining sector”. The ceremony held at the conference room of the Ministry’s headquarters in Abuja.
In her address, Dr. Ogbe said ” that the present survey is a follow up on the result of the former survey conducted between 2006 and 2011 and hence, it has better resolution, more result oriented, richer in information and therefore, a very valuable incentive to the investor”.
To this end, the Permanent Secretary made a clarion call on investors to visit the Nigeria Geological Survey Agency (NGSA), National Steel Raw Materials Exploration Agency (NSRMEA) Mining Cadastre Office (MCO)and the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development ( MMSD) websites for more technical information about the Airborne Survey and other activities of the Ministry aimed at de-risking the sector.
In his earlier remarks, the Project Coordinator, MINDIVER, Engr. Sellim Salaam, said that the Geo data acquisition, which is funded through the World Bank credit facility to support the mineral sector for economic diversification ( alternatively known as MinDiver project), is amongst the series of interventions deliberately initiated by the Federal Government to enhance optimal access to geosciences data by potential investors locally and globally.
While receiving the geological data from the Permanent Secretary; the Director – General, Nigeria Geographical Survey Agency (NGSA), Dr Abdulrazak Garba commended the efforts of the Federal Government to generate geoscience data, stressing, exploration is data dependent. He assured that NGSA would within a week go live on the Geodata Center with this data to attract the right investment into the country.
Alaba R. Balogun
Head, Press & PR
