Dele Alake, the minister of solid minerals development, says the national gold purchase programme (NGPP) will boost the country’s foreign reserves and strengthen the naira.
Alake spoke on Wednesday at the Nigeria gold day celebration on the sidelines of the 10th edition of the Nigeria mining week, themed ‘Nigeria Mining: From Progress to Global Relevance’, in Abuja.
Alake said gold as an international currency acceptable for various exchanges, which Nigeria, through the NGPP, can leverage to increase its foreign reserves.
The NGPP is a centralised offtake scheme supported by a decentralised aggregation and production network of artisanal and small-scale miners and cooperatives.
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The minister said the programme will also curb gold smuggling and reposition the solid minerals sector for greater productivity and transparency.
“The philosophy of that programme, how salutary it is, is that, we use our local naira, not foreign exchange, to mop up gold, then sell it to the CBN,” he said.
“The CBN in turn, makes part of the payment in naira but the gold kept in its vault becomes a foreign currency asset.
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“The process thereby, increases the value of our foreign reserves and reduces the pressure on the local currency.”
Alake said the solid mineral development fund (SMDF) is driving the programme, with increased allocation in 2025 to purchase locally mined gold with naira, reducing reliance on dollars.
“We use our naira and get naira back from CBN for the gold itself becomes foreign reserves for the bank,” he said.
“This is to say that there is no amount of economic calculation you can do that will be faster in terms of shoring up our foreign reserves than this particular gold programme.”
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Fatima Shinkafi, the executive director of the SMDF, said gold exploration funding in Nigeria is trending upwards, contrary to global trends.
She encouraged participants at the summit to explore Nigeria’s gold opportunities.
Earlier at the event, Shuaibu Abubakar, the minister of steel development, said the federal government has initiated talks with the Republic of China to take over the revitalisation of the Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited (ASCL) and the National Iron Ore Mining Company (NIOMCO).
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