By: ‘The Rock Post’ Team
Yunusa Mohammed, a trained Chemist, is the acting Director, Investment Promotion and Mineral Trade (IPMT), Ministry of Mines and steel Development. He doubles as head of secretariat and shoulders a tasking responsibility having to joggle between being answerable to senior colleagues, attending to core departmental schedule and NIMEP. He spoke candidly, in this exclusive interview with THE ROCK POST MAGAZINE CREW. Excerpts:
Q. What is your mandate as secretary to the monitoring committee for this very important Project?
R. NIMEP is saddled with a huge responsibility – oversee Day to Day running of both the secretariat and the entire project activity, monitoring consultant and contractors, provision of logistics, monitoring of timeline, scheduling of embedded staff in the field and others as may be assigned by the chairman of the technical committee of the project.
Q. For such a huge Project, how challenging has it been as secretary?
R. It is challenging. This is the first time in the history of the country that such a huge project to provide a commercially viable data for the mining industry applicable to specific minerals is being undertaken. In other mining jurisdictions, these responsibility falls on the private sector. Nigeria is peculiar because we are trying to attain the status of a mining nation.
Q. What is the duration of the Project, the effective take-off date and according to the pace of work, how confident are you that the deadline can be met?
R. According to the projects’ terms of reference, the duration is one year. It was signed in December 2018 which also signifies the official commencement date. The project is structured into about four phases of which only four have been achieved so far. The exploration project is at its lowest ebb owing to the rainy season and insurgents activities in some of the areas. These constitute some of the challenges responsible for the slow pace of work. I foresee an extension of up to six months in order to make up for the unforeseen circumstances.
Q. How do you ensure compliance to the employment clause for embedded local geoscientists?
R. During the design of the project, the thinking of government is to address lack of proactivity of the ministry and agencies geoscientists’, form them into streams, sharpen their skills, update them on current exploration techniques and distribute them among the contractors and consultants during field work. We have achieved a lot in this regard.
Q. How strategic are the explored minerals to the sectors’ industrialization?
R. Not just industrialization but how can mining be upgraded to the next level to contribute to the GDP. There has not been any meaningful data on rare earth metals in Nigeria. Lithium, being a member of that group, for instance, is highly sought after in the manufacture of mobile phones, electric automobiles. This is an emerging trend which triggers demand due to population increase. This could stimulate investment interest in the sector and address the employment challenge from the army of youth seeking placement. Agriculture and Mining posses the capacity to curtail this menace.
Q. What is the key experience you have gained as Secretary of the Project’s monitoring committee?
R. Professionally, being a Chemist and as a trained drilling fluids engineer, I can attest to have gained tremendous geological exposure, secretarial management experience and the whole project has confidently prepared me for higher responsibility.
Q. What are the plans to market these successes?
R. We are trying to bring the Contractors and Consultants together to take an overview of the progress so far recorded. Recent indications through several fora indicate profound success during preliminary presentation at indaba in February, PDAC in March, OECD in Paris, in London at the Arab Quarry summit and now in Africa Down Under in Australia. These are all geared to market our successes though full technical details are yet to be made public.
Q. The project is certainly a learning curve for you, any special gratitude for the opportunity to serve?
R. We are supported by the Ministry, Ministers, Permanent Secretary and the Committees’ Chairman. I thank them profoundly for their wisdom and finding us worthy though hard word and credibility for the responsibility without which I wouldn’t have been anywhere. We hope to live up to their expectations.
