The member representing Esan West,Esan Central and Igueben Federal Constituency, Rt. Hon. Marcus Onobun ksc, has stated that the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development has the potential to lift Nigeria out of its current dependency on oil and gas in revenue and a sphere to diversify the economy if properly harnessed.
Rt Hon Marcus Onobun ksc stated this during an oversight working visit to the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development and The Nigerian Geological Survey Agency by the House Committee on Mines and Steel Development.
Rt Hon Marcus Onobun ksc a member of the House Committee of Mines and steel, said Nigeria is richly blessed with abundant deposits of solid minerals which have the potential of transforming the economic landscape of the Nation.
He stated that aside from Agriculture, if properly harnessed the extractive industry would boost the Nation’s foreign exchange reserves, stressing that to achieve this the industry has to be regulated and proper laws enacted to attract direct foreign investment into the sector.
The Nigerian Geological Survey Agency is a parastatal under the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development. The Agency has the statutory role of providing relevant and up-to-date geoscience information necessary for the economic development of Nigeria. This is accomplished through a systematic process of gathering, collating, assessing, and disseminating all information related to rocks, minerals, and groundwater resources of the country.
Rt Hon Onobun further stated that to properly harness the potential of the agency, the Act establishing the agency must be amended and strengthened, not only to enable it to carry out its core function as one of the primary actors in the extractive industry but also help it generate revenue into the coffers of the Federal Government.
Rt. Hon. Onobun identified the lacuna existing between private sector actors and the agency which has hindered data collation and harmonization thus, hampering the growth in the sector.
He reiterated that as a result of the lack of manpower, there should be synergy between the private sector and the agency in areas of exploration, discoveries, research, and data collation.
A tour of the facility revealed the fact that more has to be done in other to reposition the agency as a major driver for economic growth and also properly harness the collective wealth of the Nation.