President Muhammadu Buhari receives the locally mined gold bars by the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Development Initiative.The Nigerian economy has over the years relied heavily on crude oil for foreign exchange earnings and government revenues. As with mono-economies, this reliance makes Nigeria vulnerable to fluctuations in crude oil prices and production.
This is considered a step toward the actualisation of economic diversification in Nigeria, as gold futures trade up to $1800 dollars per ounce. But the journey to fully harness the potentials in the mining sector will be long and perilous.While presenting the locally mined gold bars by the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Development Initiative, President Muhammadu Buhari disclosed that Nigeria lost about $3bn to the smuggling of gold between 2012 and 2018.
The initiative was launched to foster the formalisation and integration of artisanal gold mining activities into Nigeria’s legal, economic, and institutional framework.Central bank of Nigeria building According to the Nigeria Mining Growth Roadmap, Nigeria’s gold reserve is estimated at 200 million metric tonnes.
It recommended that the government should expedite action on the proposed national gold policy so as to arrest further revenue loss and return sanity to the gold mining environment to make it attractive to world-class investors.“Government to also step up strong measures to rid the gold mining environment of unauthorized miners whose activities pose security threat.
He said a major company had been able to do serious exploration in Ilesha and pull about 500 thousand ounces of gold in a small area of 100 to 200-kilometre square.