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The federal government is committed to
provide a conducive legal, social and fiscal environment for the
private sector to invest in the mining sector, with private sector as
key players and attention to be given to the small scale operators.
Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Musa Mohammed Sada, stated
this at the official commissioning of Multiverse Plc, a quarry plant
located in Alagutan village, Abeokuta-Ajebo Road, of Ogun State, at the
weekend. He noted that the availability of mineral resources has
remained a visible feature of the nation’s economy, hence, the arduous
task of mining and transforming them into useful economic values should
be consistently pursued.

More entrepreneurs needed

“Government is
committed to provide a conducive legal, social and fiscal environment
for the private sector to invest in the mining sector, while the
private sector will be the key player, government will pay attention to
the small scale operators,” he said. In view of this, the minister
called for the entrenchment of a broad-based mining culture and the
adoption of a realistic mining strategy whose operational framework is
responsive to the raw-material needs of our economic development. “Such
strategy has provided implementable blue-print in some countries like
China, Ghana and India in the sphere of mineral resources exploitation
and management,” he said. “At this stage of our development, we need
more entrepreneurs to take advantage of the opportunities in the solid
minerals sector.”

The Managing Director of the Multiverse, Ayedun Fasina, said the
commissioning of the 1.2million metric tons per annum ultra-modern
quarry was a dream come true. “We plan to replicate this modern quarry
of 1.2million metric ton per annum in the remaining five geo-political
zones of the country within the next two years,” he said, while
pleading with the federal government to assist in putting in place a
special fund for the mining sector, “which we believe has the same
capacity like the oil sector to contribute significantly to the country
GDP.” He said one of the cardinal objectives of the company is to
generate employment for the teeming youth. “The company has
metamorphosed from one man business to a public quoted company with
over 4,000 shareholders and asset base of N3-7billion within a five
year period,” he said.