By Shittu Oluwadamilola 

The Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, has said reforms introduced by the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Nigeria’s mining sector are yielding results, with more than $2.6 billion in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) attracted within the last 30 months.


Shettima said the investments were driven by the Federal Government’s efforts to de-risk the mining environment and enforce local value addition as a key condition for licensing, stressing that Nigeria is no longer willing to remain merely a source of raw materials for other economies.


According to a statement issued by his spokesman, Stanley Nkwocha, the Vice President made the remarks on Wednesday in Abuja during the commissioning of the corporate headquarters of Kursi Group, established by Ambassador Abdulfatai Yahaya Seriki Gambari.

•Vice President Kashim Shettima

“We are becoming a global hub for mineral refinement, beneficiation, and value-driven industrial growth,” Shettima said.


He noted that companies such as Kursi Group, which are investing in processing critical minerals like lithium for the global green energy transition and refining gold to international standards within Nigeria, align with the country’s industrialisation agenda.


“There is no doubt that any enterprise processing our lithium for the global green energy transition, and refining our gold to international standards right here on our soil, eases our industrial ambition,” he stated.


Shettima added that nations achieve sustainable growth by controlling the value chain of their natural resources.


“Every nation that rises does so by mastering the value chain of its natural advantage. Every nation that commands respect in the world economy learns to convert resources into products, products into industries, and industries into national power,” he said.


After commissioning the Kursi Group headquarters, the Vice President, accompanied by the Governor of Kwara State, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, and other dignitaries, toured the facility, which houses a refining factory and a state-of-the-art minerals marketing and tracking platform.


The event attracted investors in the mining sector as well as traditional and religious leaders from Kwara State and other parts of the country.