TheCable

Vice-President Kashim Shettima says Nigeria is poised to produce 4,000 tonnes of lithium per day.

Shettima spoke on Monday in Abuja at a two-day roundtable on ‘Sustainable Development of Nigeria’s Mining Sector’.

The roundtable was organised by the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS).

Shettima, who was represented by Abdullahi Sule, governor of Nasarawa state, said “President Bola Tinubu would soon inaugurate Nigeria’s largest lithium factory capable of processing 4,000 metric tonnes of lithium per day”.

He also said Dele Alake, minister of solid minerals development, performed a ground-breaking ceremony for the lithium factory in Nasarawa in 2023 to produce 18,000 metric tonnes of lithium per day.

According to Shettima, more lithium sites are being discovered across the country.

Shettima also commended Alake for the reforms he had brought to the solid minerals sector, particularly his plan to sanitise and reposition the sector to boost Nigeria’s economic profile.

He also applauded the minister for making the sector public and private sector-driven, adding that the approach would open up the sector for opportunities and fast-track its development.

On his part, Alake said the ministry’s seven-point agenda was in line with Tinubu’s commitment to diversify Nigeria’s economy.

He said one of the ministry’s critical seven-point agenda was the emphasis placed on local value addition through policies that promoted the processing of raw minerals because of the economic multiplier effects.

Alake said the development of the solid minerals sector required collective responsibility by all stakeholders to make it a key contributor to the economy.

The minister said the roundtable would enrich the analysis of the sector and its recommendations would guide the executive arm of government in decision-making.

Alake also said a dual-pronged approach, combining coercive and persuasive methods, was employed to combat illegal mining and to attract foreign direct investment to the sector.

He said the persuasive measure entailed formalising artisanal and illegal miners into cooperatives and that 150 of such cooperatives had been registered so far.

The minister said the coercive method involved the establishment of a marshal corps deployed across the country to secure mining environments.

“My objective as your minister is to work to ensure that Nigeria becomes a mining destination for the first time in its history and we are working to make this happen by alleviating bottlenecks and salient challenges that have plagued the sector over time such as security, licensing problems, unclear community engagement/development frameworks, policy inconsistencies, illegal mining on existing licenses and others,” he added.

Earlier, Ayo Omotayo, director-general of NIPSS, said the roundtable aimed at charting a way forward to deliver a diversified economy and to formulate policies to advance the mining sector.