(Nigeria’s Trade Minister Jumoke Oduwole. Photo Credit: Nairametrics)
Nigeria’s Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, has said the country has about 26 of the 60 critical minerals the United States is trying to secure around the world.
She said this on Tuesday while answering questions on a television programme.
According to her, since Nigeria holds so many of these minerals, nobody can take anything from the country unless Nigeria agrees to the terms.
The minister explained that the critical minerals framework recently signed between Nigeria and the U.S. is a Memorandum of Understanding, MOU, and it is not legally binding. She said MOUs are first of all statements of intention.
She said the Federal Government is working with the US to build a full value-addition supply chain for Nigerian minerals.
While the U.S. wants to secure and support its own critical minerals supply chain, Nigeria wants infrastructure, energy and other routes that will stop its minerals from being exported raw.
Oduwole added that the government wants Nigeria to grow its minerals value chain at home, and she gave lithium processing and battery manufacturing as examples.
She assured Nigerians that the framework is not a way of giving away the nation mineral wealth.
She said she could only speak broadly about what it contains because it has no detailed provisions yet, and that this is simply how countries negotiate at the government-to-government level.
In her words, Nigeria is giving nothing away and has no reason to be afraid or react in panic.
The minister said Nigeria must negotiate deals in ways that protect Nigerian businesses and get the most from its minerals.
She noted that Nigeria waited too long to join the global critical minerals and rare earths supply chain, while other African countries such as South Africa, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone have mined minerals for years.
According to her, formal mining could create jobs for young people in communities hit by insecurity and cut down restiveness by giving them a steady way to earn a living.