On Wednesday in Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and France drilled down the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed last month in Paris, with concrete commitments by France to upgrade the laboratory, provide advanced technological equipment, and fund the exploration of geological data of the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency.
Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake and France’s Interministerial Delegate for Strategic Minerals, Benjamin Gallezot, meeting on the sidelines of the ongoing Future Minerals Forum in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia with their teams also resolved to exchange information on the mining laws of both countries to compare notes on cadastral management and provisions on illegal mining.
Gallezot announced that his department was screening a list of French companies that had applied to invest in the Nigerian mining sector and would forward the final list of verified serious investors to the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development.
Opening the talks, Alake appreciated Gallezot for working with him to produce the MOU despite the severe time constraints during the visit of Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu to French President Emmanuel Macron, adding that attempts by political opponents to misinform the public about the genuine objectives of the MOU have been sufficiently neutralised.
He said the Future Minerals Forum allowed both countries to move their understanding forward by designing programmes, policies, and projects to remove doubts about collaboration and generate positive outcomes.
The talks featured issues such as sustainable mining, artisanal mining, geological exploration, cadastral management, training, and funding.
In his presentation, the Director-General (DG) of the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency (NGSA), Professor Olusegun Ige, highlighted the agency’s desire to acquire modern advanced technological equipment to enhance the exploration of geological data.
He says the lack of advanced technological equipment has delayed the exploration of large sheets of mineralised spaces.
Professor Ige said the laboratory must also be upgraded to analyse extracted rocks using the latest gadgets to generate accurate information.
Harping on the need for training and skills transfer, Professor Ige emphasised the need to develop local expertise with international exposure because mining is a global business.
In his contribution, the Director-General of the Nigerian Mining Cadastral Office, Engineer Simon Nkom, called for comparing the mining laws of France and Nigeria to detect areas of common practices and improvement, adding that this could be useful to the ongoing review of mining laws.
Simon canvassed the French delegation to encourage French investors to explore opportunities in Nigerian mining by leveraging the MOU.
Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Solid Minerals Fund, Hajiya Fatima Shinkafi, in her presentation, proposed the co-funding of early-stage exploration projects by the agency and French financial institutions, informing that the SMDF has acquired a lot of historical data and best practices from its current collaboration with the Africa Finance Corporation to fund mining entrepreneurs seeking funding for exploration.
Replying to matters raised by NGSA, Deputy Director, Bureau de Recherches Geologiques et Minieres (BRGM), the French geological agency, Christophe Poinssot, promised to include Nigeria among the countries benefitting from funds managed by France to build the capacity of geologists in Africa.
Noting that over 1,000 African geologists have benefitted from the eight-year fund, he said the request for capacity building in line with the MOU came when the new phase of the funding project was about to start.
Poinsott also announced that Nigeria would benefit from France’s programme of empowering mining countries by building laboratories for geological analysis, adding that since Nigeria has a laboratory, France would upgrade it to meet international standards.
Concluding the position of the French delegation on the talks, Gallezot said the proposals at the talks would be discussed at various levels of the government, and a programme for execution worked out.
He said both countries’ geological agencies could conduct joint exploration work on specific minerals to develop a robust database.
The parties resolved to develop the programme and review the implementation during next month’s annual Indaba in Cape Town, South Africa.
*KEHINDE BAMIGBETAN
Special Adviser to the Honourable Minister.
