The solid minerals sector has the capacity to generate about two million jobs for Nigerians and generate about N1 trillion annual income if rescued from cabal in the country, the Progressive Miners Association has said.

Speaking yesterday in Abuja, president of the Progressive Miners’ Empowerment Association, Mr. Sunny Ekozin, said President Muhammadu Buhari must rescue the sector from the cabal that has held it hostage for nearly two decades, if the new administration is to unleash that industry’s huge potentials.
He said: “One of the major challenges of the sector has been that a cabal has taken that industry hostage and has disallowed it to develop enough to make the appropriate contributions to the economy of the nation.
“This cabal has been responsible for deceiving successive governments in the past and has pocketed various funds provided by the federal government and development partners, including the World Bank. Rather than developing the sector, those involved have only enriched themselves at the detriment of the miners and the solid minerals sector,” he said.
Mr. Ekozin declined to name members of the cabal but said that many of them were those who occupied various government offices with the mandate to develop the sector in the interest of the Nigerian economy.
Some of those holding down the sector, he alleged, had allocated to themselves, as many as, 100 to 200 mining licences which they then sell through cronies, while denying genuine miners access to the fields.
Mr. Ekozin described the situation in the sector as akin of an emergency that required emergency actions on the part of President Buhari, if he was to realise the change he promised Nigerians in his campaign.
He urged Mr President to declare an emergency in the sector in order to increase its contributions to the economy.
He said the sector, if properly overseen, has the potential of adding about two million jobs to the economy and also contribute about a trillion naira to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the nation.
When contacted on the development, the spokesperson of the ministry, Mr. Ambrose Momoh, said he was not in the position to react to the issue.
He said he did not know how the funds were managed and such information would require the authorisation of the ministry’s permanent secretary.
On the Ajaokuta Steel Complex, Kogi State, Mr. Ekozin pointed out that those telling Nigerians that it was no longer viable were insincere, as according to him, “Ajaokuta is still very viable.”

sources: http://dailytrust.com.ng/daily/index.php/business/57679-experts-solid-mineral-sector-can-generate-2m-jobs-if-rescued