Minister of Solid Minerals Development Dele Alake said that at least $2.5 billion in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has been attracted to the country over the past two and a half years under President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
Speaking at the Powering Africa Summit in Washington, Alake linked the inflows to policy changes aimed at de-risking the sector, including digitizing licensing, strengthening tenure security, and improving access to geological data.
NewsQuest reports that Nigeria’s solid minerals sector has recently become a major magnet for FDI, with targets for the government as part of a broader push to diversify the economy away from oil and position mining as a key revenue and export driver.
Minister Alake at the event, urged the United States and African nations to establish regional energy hubs as a way to speed up mining industrialization across borders and secure supply chains for critical minerals vital to the global shift toward clean energy.
“Sustainable partnerships with Africa offer the quickest path to satisfying surging worldwide demand for these resources,”
Alake said.
He advocated for regional industrial corridors, pointing to models like the proposed Lagos-Abidjan belt, which could tap into the continent’s immense mineral wealth.
Our correspondent gathered that
the Federal Government in the last two years has carried out major reforms in the sector by improving governance, digitising licensing, and cracking down on illegal mining, which is seen as “de‑risking” the mining environment for foreign investors.
Stakeholders have said that the government is now offering investors incentives such as tax waivers on imported mining equipment and full repatriation of profits after payment of royalties and taxes, which boosts the sector’s attractiveness.
