In line with the Federal Government’s efforts to attract more investment into the mining Sector, the Senate Committee on Solid Minerals Development has confirmed its readiness to support the Solid Minerals Development Fund (SMDF) in realising its mandate.
This was the resolve of the Senate Committee on Solid Minerals Development under the Chairmanship of Senator Sampson Ekong on Thursday after the Agency briefed the Committee on its activities.
Sen. Ekong underscored the country’s abundant mineral resources and emphasized the need for a robust legal framework to strealine the activities in the sector. He said SMDF’s recent collaboration with the African Finance Corporation (AFC) is central to financing Greenfield exploration projects and crucial for attracting investment into the sector.
The Senate Committee promised to provide legislative backups and oversight to strengthen the existing policy framework guiding SMDF’s activities.
Earlier, the Executive Secretary, SMDF, Hajia Fatima Shinkafi, while briefing the Committee on the activities, successes and challenges of the Fund mentioned the challenges facing her agency to include the need for more investment in data generation, insecurity, Policy gaps, among others.
She however, mentioned a significant success story of the Agency, as the SMDF’s partnership with African Finance Corporation (AFC) which she said will deploy more resources for the generation of more geo- scientific data that will assist investors in making informed decisions on critical minerals.
She said “last year, we signed a key partnership agreement with the African Finance Corporation to fund Greenfield exploration, which is a data driven project that will attract investment into the sector”.
“Our focus is to grow fund to impact and create jobs to mitigate against the current economic situation, to increase forex earnings from exports. If we can increase the critical mass of investment and export proceeds, we can increase our Forex and strengthen the Naira”.
The Executive Secretary said SMDF will prioritize foreign investment attraction, export revenue enhancement, and domestic job creation as she also noted that the partnership with the Senate Committee on Solid Minerals would address legislative and policy gaps that would facilitate sectoral growth.
Idowu Jokpeyibo
Head, Corporate Communications
SMDF
