Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Oladele Alake has lauded the management of the Nigerian Export-Import (NEXIM) Bank for deploying its financial tools to assist the mining industry in meeting some of its critical needs of equipment and funding.
Receiving the NEXIM Bank Managing Director, Abba Bello, in his office on Wednesday, Dr. Alake urged the bank to give more support to the sector to maximise its potential.
“I think your role is quite critical to filling the financing shortfall for local mining investors. We need you to up the game for our local investors so that we can minimize logistical bottlenecks for exports of solid minerals while also scaling up access to funding and mining equipment”, the Minister said.
Briefing the Minister on NEXIM Bank’s mining support scheme, Bello stressed that it seeks to support local mining companies’ access to capital to develop critical minerals, enhance credit to de-risk projects, facilitate and attract investments to enable mining projects to optimize the contribution of the mining sector to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and exports.
“The mining scheme will comprise Equipment Leasing Framework, which is designed to minimize investment capital outlay for needed production equipment; Contract Mining Framework, which would enhance productivity and scale of mining operations while the Buyers Credit/ECA financing is intended to leverage partnerships to enhance value-added operations and expansion of current mining operations”, Bello added.
Highlighting the bank’s role in addressing logistical challenges to exports of solid minerals, the NEXIM bank MD revealed the successful survey and charting of the lower River Niger which has improved navigation and enhanced the capacity to facilitate transport of bulk solid minerals through the Ajaokuta terminal and Burukutu port.
Dr. Alake expressed satisfaction with the bank’s commitment to the development of the mining sector, pledging the ministry’s collaboration to leverage the bank’s resources for the benefit of the mining industry.
On the MD’s entourage was Technical Adviser to the MD, Hope Yongo.
