We’ll welcome collaborative initiatives to transform mining sector, says Engr. Gegu, Kogi Commissioner

Engr. Bashir Abubakar Gegu is the Commissioner of Solid Mineral Resources in Kogi State. In this interview with NEW ERA newspaper, Eng Gegu bares his mind on state of the mining sector of the economy, while lamenting the declining production profiles of the sector.
He also spoke on other challenges and potentials in driving the diversification of the nation’s economy.

Engr. Gegu underscores the importance of the ongoing workshop on collaboration organised by the Nigerian Mining Association and sponsored by the Federal ministry of Mining and Steel Development.

By News Editor

You are welcome to Abuja.The mining sector in Nigeria seems to have plummeted. What are the challenges?

Thank you very much.The country’s mining sector and operations are beseted with lots of multi-faceted challenges such as the volatile commodity prices,operational cost increases in excess of inflation,health and safety issues,and depletion of less geologically complex reserves. This challenges has resulted in the declining production profiles for the mining sector in the country.

What do you think are the solutions urgently needed to solve this challenges and revise this plummeting trends?

Current challenges requires solutions that are specific to the nation’s general tabular mining environments. This solutions includes but are not limited to increasing local mining reserves and development capacity, encouragement of local equipment manufacturing and associated procurements, and technology and skills transfers.Owning to the magnitude of this changes required to established a sustainable mining industry in the country, stakeholders needs to come together and discuss to agree on a collaborative template and approach through a public-private partnership approach and that is why we are here today.

What do you think is the role of the government in this particularly, the federal ministry of mines and steel development?.

The Federal ministry of mines and steel behoves to provide this platform for this needed collaborative initiatives and we in the states are therefore happy for this intervention which we regards generally as timely and apt. A collaboration of all stakeholders to ensure the general sustainability of the Nigerian mining sector with the ministry and the Nigerian mining association as drivers is a welcome development at this time. This collaborative workshop is Germaine to the discussions by the drivers and the stakeholders in the sector highlighting the challenges generally in relations to mining in Nigeria.

Let us turn our attention for a moment to Kogi state mining sector.What is your mining resources challenges and reserves situation?.

Kogi State mineral resources are generally still regarded and considered to be among the foremost in the country but just like the country generally, it’s deep-level operations are facing huge challenges with the depletion of easily accessible resources through constraints such as the activities of illegal mining activities

What then do you think this collaborative workshop is aimed at achieving towards the resuscitations of the mining sector in the country?.

This workshop as a deliberate one is aimed at re-affirming the governments commitments and that of the stakeholders to the development of the mining sector through collaborative actions and the development of the national technology, industry and the economy through the mining sector.It also aimed at improving Nigeria’s competitiveness in the global market at this time when the government is hell bent on the diversification of the economy of the country through a systemic development strategy with a holistic view of the economy and the development of a collaborative interventions that would ultimately have a tangible impacts on the short-and-medium term interventions needs to take into account,economic and socio-economic historical,structure,and immediate challenges that existed in the sector.

Finally, what is your advice to all mining stakeholders in the country?.

Very simple as we must get it right this time around.Collaboration should be entrenched in the institutional mechanisms that will be applied to address the challenges through actions and not only by words by all stakeholders. This workshop on collaboration should be able to address as far as possible issues to keep the sector afloat during commodity high and slumps. Additional goals should include putting in place initiatives that would position the mining sector in a firm position to grow and transform,optimize the contribution of the sector to the economic and social development of mining-related communities and the country in general. The first phase should involve addressing the challenges that are currently experienced by the sector. The second phase should be about the stabilization of the sector in other to yield results over the medium to the long term for all stakeholders. The last but not the least phase is focusing on setting up initiatives that are geared towards developing the future of the Nigerian mining industry.