By Milcah Tanimu
Nigeria and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have pledged to strengthen collaboration in the development of solid minerals as the global shift from fossil fuels to cleaner energy gains momentum. The commitment was made during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Future Minerals Forum (FMF) held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, and his Saudi Arabian counterpart, Bandar AlKhorayef, led the respective delegations from both countries.
Dr. Alake emphasized the importance of forging partnerships, noting that the global energy transition relies on critical minerals, which Nigeria possesses abundantly. He highlighted the need for significant investments in exploration, exploitation, extraction, processing, and local value addition to maximize the utilization of natural resources.
“We realize that we must look at regions outside of Africa to collaborate, further consolidate, and enhance our capacity in exploring and exploiting the natural resources that we have. For us to maximally utilize, exploit, and derive maximum revenue for our economic and infrastructural development, we need to have a very solid partnership with nations like Saudi Arabia,” stated the Minister.
Alake praised Saudi Arabia’s positive history of affinity with Nigeria and expressed the country’s willingness to reciprocate by consolidating partnerships in economic development. He specifically highlighted the mining sector as an area where Saudi Arabia could make investments in Nigeria.
The Minister advocated for investments in local value addition, involving the processing of solid minerals leading to production and the establishment of factories in Nigeria. He emphasized that such investments would generate employment and have a multiplier effect on the economy. Alake expressed the readiness of the Nigerian team to collaborate with their Saudi Arabian counterparts in fine-tuning specifics and mapping out strategies for collaboration within a specified time frame.
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