October 19, 2017

The Wife of the Vice President, Mrs Dolapo Osinbajo has called on stakeholders in gemstone industry to focus on ways to achieve market growth of the products to international level.

Osinbajo made the call at the African Gemstones and Jewellery Exhibition and Seminar (AGJES) 2017 on Thursday in Abuja.

She said that the industry had promising future but it needed stakeholder’s synergy to create both local and International markets for gemstone.

She added that with the penetration of the product into the international market, it could boost the economy, increase Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and improve the livelihood of Nigerians.

According to her, Nigeria is richly endowed with mineral deposits across the country such as precious metals and stones.

Osinbajo said that 80 per cent of coloured stones in the world were mined by 90 per cent artisanal and small scale miners in developing countries including Nigeria.

She said that it became necessary to develop the Nigerian mining sector to enjoy the benefit it could afford.

Dr Kayode Fayemi, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development said the essence of the seminar was to bring stakeholders together to discuss how to grow the mining industry.

Fayemi said that the roadmap identified gemstones among the nation’s diverse mineral resources as high value commodities that have the potential of significantly contributing to the priority goals of economic diversification, wealth creation and jobs creation.

He said that in spite of the huge potential in gemstone mining, phenomenal loss of revenue, damage to the environment remained major cause of concern.

The minister said that in the past, gemstone sector had largely been a vehicle for money laundering with the average dollar value of Nigerian gems exported put at over three billion dollars annually.

“The local mining industry for gems remained at its primitive level of shovel and digger and Nigeria’s vast untapped gemstone resource is not being optimally exploited for the benefit of Nigerians.

“The goal of our reforms in this segment of the mining industry has been to ensure proper organisation of the gemstone sector from prospecting to exploration, to mining, processing and marketing of gemstones in Nigeria,” he said.

Fayemi said that the ministry’s strategic policy thrust was to centralise all gemstone sector activities and ensure transparency and ease in organising and monitoring gemstone artisanal mining.

He said that the ministry would halt personal exports of minerals which had hitherto abetted smuggling and other sharp practices to ensure accurate records were kept of sources of gemstone.

He said that gemstone had the potential to boost Nigeria’s GDP by ensuring due repatriation of gemstone export proceeds through the CBN.

“It can boost our revenue accruals by ensuring appropriate collection of royalties to ensure accurate payment of derivation to the states where the gemstones exports were excavated from,” he said.

NAN reports that currently, the Nigerian gemstones industry has not been able to convert the abundant natural mineral resources into foreign exchange earnings comparable to petroleum industry or even the country’s entertainment industry.