The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, has said that mining development grants would be awarded strictly on merit and not on the basis of personal connections.

Mr Alake stated this during the official unveiling of the Early-Stage Mineral Exploration and Research Grant Endowment (EMERGE) Programme, designed to boost mineral exploration, research and development in Nigeria.

EMERGE, comprising three streams, is funded and implemented by the Solid Minerals Development Fund (SMDF), with Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) serving as its programme administration partner.

The programme aims to support early-stage mineral exploration, strengthen research capacity and advance mineral-processing research that adds value to Nigeria’s mineral resources through competitively awarded grants.

The minister said beneficiaries of the grant would be chosen strictly on the strength of their proposals, stressing that there would be no shortcuts, as only the quality of submissions would determine access to the grant.

“EMERGE will be transparent and competitive from beginning to end.

“Applications will be assessed strictly on merit and the process is independently administered by PwC, our Programme Administration Partner, to guarantee transparency, accountability and a level playing field for every applicant,” he said.

He said that for the first time in Nigeria’s history, the government was offering purposeful, dedicated grants for geoscience and mineral-processing research, as well as support for mining operators, as part of its commitment to reposition the sector.

“The next breakthrough in how we process our lithium, our gold or our rare earths could come from a laboratory in one of our own universities and EMERGE exists to find it and to fund it.

“With catalytic grants at the start, de-risking and co-funding in the middle and an accelerator to carry you toward private investment mining, entrepreneurs in this country have honestly never had it this good.

“The support is here, what remains is for you to apply,” he said.

Mr Alake described the initiative as a milestone and attributed it, along with other sector reforms, to the commitment of President Bola Tinubu’s administration to diversify the economy and ensure the sector contributes significantly to GDP.

“In just a few years, the SMDF has built the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC)-SMDF Project Development Facility to co-fund and de-risk commercial projects.

“It has delivered the 1.5 million metric tonnes per annum alumina refinery, the largest single investment commitment in our mining history.

“It has supplied responsibly sourced, internationally certified gold to the Central Bank of Nigeria, helping lift our foreign reserves,” he said.

According to him, the Tinubu administration is no longer offering a single door but a full corridor of support, from the first geological idea to the final processed product.

Earlier in her remarks, the Executive Secretary of SMDF, Fatima Shinkafi, described EMERGE as a competitively awarded grant facility designed to address one of the most persistent gaps in the minerals sector.

Ms Shinkafi said EMERGE places catalytic funding directly in the hands of explorers, universities and research institutions, so that more promising projects could move from potential to proof.

“For too long, Nigeria’s mineral wealth has sat in the ground as unrealised potential, its most promising projects unable to attract early funding.

“EMERGE changes that, funding early-stage exploration, the processing technologies that add value at home and the research behind them, then helping grantees move from grants to private investment,” she said.

Applications for the grants opened at the unveiling and would be assessed on a rolling, first-come, first-served basis. 

(NAN)