The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, has expressed the commitment of the federal government to support mining companies that place a premium on local content in their operations.
This disclosure was made while speaking during a site tour of the Segilola Resources Operating Limited, an indigenous gold mining company in Ilesha, Osun State, according to The Punch.
The Minister praised the wide range of work carried out in the facility, expressing delight at the fact that more than 95 per cent of its staff are Nigerians, and urged other operators to follow suit.
Alake pointed out that the company applied local content to its procurement and employment policies in line with the Nigerian component of the project.
The Minister also commended the firm for its perseverance of purpose and efficiency in implementing its vision, despite obstacles faced at inception, according to a statement signed on Friday in Abuja by his Special Assistant on Media.
highlighting that he has aimed to redirect local and international attention to the mining sector, Alake revealed that the implementation of his 7-point agenda is to reposition the mining sector.
“I have made sanitising the security of the mining environment one of the critical points of my 7-point agenda. Recently, as part of the process of actualising that policy, I had to unveil the creation of a mine marshal. They have a base in all the states of the country.”
While taking steps to drive investments in the sector, Alake has also warned that no mining license would be issued to prospective investors without requisite plans for value addition on minerals.
In his remarks, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Segilola Resources, Segun Lawson, said that the company is a world-class undertaking built by Nigerian entrepreneurs and he called on the Federal Government to support it so that it can scale up and contribute more to the country’s economy.
The managing director said the company spent N29bn on local procurement and has a 1,993 workforce with 98 per cent local employees.
According to the firm, Segilola has paid $ 4.3 million in compensation to date and spent N1bn on 25 community projects, which benefitted 11,112 indigenes, 135 fish and vegetable farmers, and 4,479 community members.
The company told the Minister that it had recycled 1.27 million tonnes of waste and that its security measures had resulted in zero environmental incidents.
