Why We Banned Exports of Raw Gold – FG

The Federal government said that the prohibition on the export of unprocessed gold was necessary to prevent the country from making the same mistakes it did during the crude oil regime.

The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mr Olamilekun Adegbite, disclosed this on Sunday stating that the Federal Government’s recently implemented “Down Stream Mineral Policy” will allow Nigeria have a vibrant industrial refining sector.

“If you mine and you cannot process it yourself, you can sell it off to processors in Nigeria. These processors would either buy it off you totally or process and resell or they can process and return it to you. So, that is the policy in Nigeria now because we do not want to lose jobs or wealth to other countries,” he said.

He explained that he had noted the mining industry was losing its position as a major exporter of minerals when he returned to office in 2019.

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“You know what we do in the oil and gas sector. We export crude oil and import petroleum into the country by that we export all our jobs out. So, I said we cannot make the same mistake with mining so I started very early in 2019 to develop a policy called Down Stream Mineral Policy,” he noted.

He also mentioned that a variety of businesses can utilise the minerals mined in Nigeria, highlighting the pharmaceutical industry’s use of kaolin, which is abundant in Bauchi State. Kaolin is used in many industries, including the paint, plastic, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical ones, as the Minister noted.