By Adedapo Adesanya
The federal government and a consultancy giant, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), have announced a collaboration that will help the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development execute the policies under the seven-point roadmap to transform the country’s mining sector and drive Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the country.
The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Mr Dele Alake, made it known that the government would work with a foremost consulting firm when he received the PWC partner on mining, Mr Habeeb Jaiyeola.
He said President Bola Tinubu is focusing on the sector as a game changer to reposition the country for lasting prosperity and commended the company for its role in the just-concluded Nigerian Mining Week and the first phase of the bitumen concession programme.
Mr Alake thanked the consulting firm for its contribution to the mining sector over the years, assuring that the expertise and ideas of PwC will be factored into reforms of the mining sector and implementation of the seven-point agenda.
Presenting the thoughts of PwC on the seven-point agenda, Mr Jaiyeola expressed the readiness of PwC to partner with the ministry in achieving the agenda’s objectives which seeks to make the solid minerals a key sector to attract FDIs.
” We summarised our thoughts on the seven-point agenda, looking at it and suggesting how to bring it to life whilst advising on pitfalls and how to avoid them. The major thing is that at the end of the tenure of the administration, there will be key deliverables that can be monitored, and the roadmap on how each of them is going to be achieved and projected.
“We will be open to further deliberations on how we can proceed by comparing notes,” Mr Jaiyeola emphasised.
The minister when he took over the post reeled out a seven-point agenda tagged Agenda for the Transformation of the Solid Minerals Sector for International Competitiveness and Domestic Prosperity, which includes the creation of the Nigerian Solid Minerals Corporation, Big Data on specific seven priority minerals and their deposits, and comprehensive review of all mining license amongst others.
