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Fed Govt to deploy tech to sanitise solid minerals sector

The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake has said the Ministry would need technology to sanitise the Solid Minerals sector.

He spoke yesterday in Abuja when the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Chief Uche Nnaji paid a courtesy call to his office.

Alake said the significance of technology in sanitising and repositioning the mining sector for greater productivity to achieve a substantial contribution to Nigeria's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of the Tinubu administration.

According to a statement by the Special Assistant on Media to the Minister, Segun Tomori, the minister said the solid minerals sector relies on a huge dose of technology to sanitise the solid minerals sector in areas such as the scientific geo-data generation, addressing security challenges and all other ancillary matters around the mining value chain.

Alake said the security architecture that is being rejigged, is going to inject a large measure of technology into it, saying the Science, Innovation and Technology Ministry is being targeted to assist  in this regard. He said  that's why "my brother Minister has come in and we are consolidating, discussing and moving the issue forward to ensure that at the end of the day, there is synergy in all our operations.

 That was part of the essence of the ministerial retreat we had last week. So the visit is in furtherance of our collaborative efforts to ensure that the Solid Minerals Ministry is a beneficiary of all the innovations that will be pushed out," Alake added.

In his remarks, Nnaji affirmed the imperative of partnership to assist the solid minerals ministry to take advantage of innovations that will keep the minister abreast of activities within the mining sector.

"We have a lot of innovations in Science and Tech. We have a satellite approach to what they do in Solid Minerals Ministry such that even on the Minister's desk here, he can see all the licenses they have issued and be able to monitor whenever there is intrusion into a mining area, or someone is mining illegally.

"In all these, he will be able to decipher from his desk, that is part of the discussion we have held and how to actually be in consonance with the Renewed Hope agenda,” he stated.