Nigeria News: Bitumen Fetches Federal Governent N3trn

Federal Government yesterday realised over N3 trillion ($20,498,115.39) from the financial bidding of two bitumen blocks and mining properties located across the nation.

Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Lesley Obiora, said at the financial bid for the Bitumen blocks and Mining Titles & Properties held in Abuja said the reformation in the solid mineral sector was the culmination of a major privatization exercise with four basic fundamental objectives.

Obiora disclosed that the privatisation exercise will eventually lead to creation of jobs and poverty reduction, while hoping that the two bitumen blocks can attract investments of $600 million each, over two years on exploration and production.

According to her, about $3 billion could be generated over five years if the investors build a local refinery, while the gold properties could attract investments of $25 to $100 million in exploration and development over a period of two years, adding that the

industrial minerals properties like Barytes could also attract investments of $3 to $5 million within a year of operation.

She announced that government will continue "to divest from ownership of mining operations, attract strong, credible players into mining sector, deliver fair value for past government investment and curtail huge waste of national resources."

According to her, the privatisation exercise was aimed to catalyze the rapid growth of the mining sector in the nation, noting that the privatised ones are relatively at more advanced stages of development than the Greenfield mining titles which are more readily available through the licensing procedure."Nigeria is endowed with at least 34 mineral resources in more than 450 locations across the country," noting that the growing global economic position of India and China is hinged on their ever increasing consumption of strategic minerals.

She noted, however, that despite the immense contribution of solid minerals in the nation before the oil discovery in 1956, the nation has experience "drastic decline in the level of revenue to one per cent"

In her remark, Director General of Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Irene Chigbue said the reform in the sector was done in collaboration with MSMD which had 60 prospective investors pre-qualified.

According to her, out of these, 35 bids were submitted by 10 companies out of which five emerged as winners, while five others fell out due to bidding below the reserved prices for the resources.

Culled from AllAFrica