Nigeria is offering would-be investors a generous three-year tax holiday and other incentives in a bid to turn around its moribund mining industry

Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, on Tuesday called on foreign investors to invest in the country’s mining sector to benefit “100 per cent ownership” of their investments.

“Some foreign mining investors are not aware that Nigeria is a mining nation; we want them to come and invest in Nigerian mining as our incentives are good compared to other mining nations,” he told journalists ahead of forthcoming sixth edition of the Nigeria Mining Week on Tuesday in Abuja.

“Our royalty is the lowest compare to other mining nations, we charge 3.5 per cent, while other mining nations charge 17 to 20 per cent depending on the mineral mined,’’ he said.

The 2021 Mining Week is scheduled to be held from November 16 to November 17, with the theme: “Seven reasons to invest in Nigerian Mining”.

He said the federal government allows local and foreign mining investors to have 100 per cent ownership of minerals mined, as one of its incentives to woo investors to the industry.

According to him, Nigeria is still fresh in mining; “we need to encourage mining investors to invest in Nigeria to enjoy maximum benefit of the country’s green field resources.”

Other incentives include: holders of a mineral title are guaranteed free transfer of funds through the Central Bank of Nigeria and a three-year tax holiday.

He said that this year’s mining week would be a virtual event, adding that it would bring together mining investors, governors, some ministers and the event would be declared open by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo.

Uchechukwu Ogah, the Minister of State, said that this year’s mining week would be purely an investment programme that would yield a lot of benefits for the nation.

Kabir Kankara, president, Miners Association of Nigeria, said the event would be digital due to Covid-19 pandemic with the attendant palpable fear of the emergence of new variants.

Kankara said that the event had contributed in raising global awareness to the huge potentiality of the nation’s mineral endowments with the view to attracting local and foreign investments to transform the endowments to national wealth.

He said the event had also provided a platform for conversations toward policy formulation and reviews through stakeholders’ engagements and interactions.

NAN