The Ministry of Mines and Steel Development is considering disbursing N200 million to 100 artisanal miners to boost mining activities in Nigeria. The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mr Olamilekan Adegbite, made the disclosure in an interview on Sunday in Abuja. He said that the fund would be drawn from the ministry’s N3.2 billion mining intervention fund, domiciled with the Bank of Industry (BoI). Adegbite explained that two million naira each would be given to 100 artisanal miners to help them to operate their businesses. He said that the ministry had an agreement with BoI in 2017, to contribute…
Author: Abdallah el-Kurebe
The Federal government has given six billion naira lifeline to the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development to tackle the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mr Olamilekan Adegbite, made the disclosure at a NAN forum in Abuja on Sunday. He said that the lifeline, to serve as a palliative for the sector, would be expended on setting up six mineral clusters in the country’s six geo-political zones. “During the lockdown, I was invited by the Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, to come up with things to be done during post-COVID-19 to help stimulate…
The Federal government has packaged the mineral, known as Barite, found in Nigeria to meet international standards to attract revenue for the nation. The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mr Olamilekan Adegbite, made the announcement in Abuja on Sunday at a NAN forum. Barite is a mineral used mainly in the petroleum industry in the formulation of drilling mud. It is found largely in Cross River in Nigeria’s resource-rich Niger Delta belt. The mineral is also found in in the U.S., China, India and Morocco. Adegbite said that on his assumption of office in 2019, he raised a team…
The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mr Olamilekan Adegbite, has assured miners that the Federal Government would eliminate multiple taxation in the mining sector. Adegbite, who gave the assurance on Sunday in Abuja at a NAN Forum,said that the mines and steel development ministry was working with the National Economic Council and the Nigeria Governors’ Forum to ensure that miners were not made to pay multiple taxes. Observers have been lamenting what they describe as the destructive impact of multiple taxation to the economy of Africa’s most populous nation. The minister explained that the Federal Government had sole jurisdiction…
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha, has confirmed that Nigeria will on Tuesday, March 2, receive the first tranche of COVID-19 vaccines. Mustapha, who is also the chairman, Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, made the disclosure on Saturday in Abuja while evaluating the country’s fight against the disease. “They (vaccines) should depart India on March 1, 2021 in the night and arrive in Abuja on the 2nd of March, 2021, ” he said. Nigeria is set to receive its first four million shipment of COVID-19 vaccines from COVAX, a global scheme set up to procure…
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has recorded 341 new cases of Coronavirus (COVID-19, bringing the total number of infected people in the country to 155,417. The NCDC disclosed this on its official Twitter handle on Saturday. It is exactly one year ago, February 27, 2020, that Nigeria recorded its COVID-19 index case, believed to be the first in Sub-Saharan Africa. Till date, 155,417 cases of the disease have been confirmed, while 133,256 patients have been discharged and 1,905 COVID-19 related deaths recorded in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). In the past 24 hours, the…
The Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, says diversification of the country’s energy mix will stimulate national economy. Speaking at the commissioning of the 1.35 megawatts solar hybrid power plant at the Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun, Delta State, Senator Omo-Agege noted that this will also create more robust avenues for national income, fight endemic poverty as well as positively match forward on the path of sustainable economic development. According to the Deputy President of the Senate, the project which is under the Federal Government’s Energising Education Programme (EEP), will produce enough electricity to power the entire…
By Prof. Chukwumerije Okereke In the past few days the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo, has been reported by many news media as reaffirming the commitment that Nigeria will achieve at least 30% of its power supply from renewable energy by 2030. It is reported that he reinstated the commitment to this ambitious target while inaugurating a 1.12 MW Solar Hybrid Project at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, in Bauchi State. The intention to have at least 30% of the total electricity supply from renewable energy is very welcome and heartwarming. It signals that Nigeria is committed to the Paris…
Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has called on states in Nigeria to shut down in protest if the next student, after those of Niger and Zamfara, is kidnapped by bandits. Soyinka, who was reacting to the recent spate of abductions across the country, spoke during the launch of his latest novel “Chronicles of the Happiest People on Earth” in Abeokuta on Saturday. ChannelsTV reports that the literature professor said such abductions were unacceptable and “drastic, meaningful measures” must be taken in unison. “The abductions of our children, when will it end, how will it end? I don’t think anyone of us…
Barely 12 hours after the release of students and staff of Government Science College Kagara and their arrival in Minna earlier this morning, bandits have in a fresh attack on Kagara and some adjourning villages, stormed some villages, killing four people and kidnapping 25 others. PREMIUM TIMES reports that a community leader in Kagara, Musa Kwabe, said eight persons were kidnapped in Kundu and 11 others in nearby Gunna district, adding that four other people were killed from Katako, a neighbouring village where seven persons are still missing. He also told PREMIUM TIMES the bandits rustled many cows in the…