NEXIM to provide N9b for solid minerals by 2015

The Managing Director, Nigeria Export Import (NEXIM) Bank, Mr Robert Orya, has told the Miners Association of Nigeria that the bank will provide about N9billion of the solid minerals sector financing requirement by 2015.

Its Head of Corporate Communication Department, Mr Chinedu Moghalu, who disclosed this in a statement, said the association paid a courtesy call on the bank in Abuja.

According to him, the fund is 16.1 per cent of the cost required to boost the mining sector by 2015.

He added that the requirement would translate to about 0.82 per cent of the sector’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the target year. The target, said NEXIM, is aimed at creating and sustaining 2,885 jobs in the sector through project finance activities.

Orya noted that NEXIM would like to help strengthen the capacity of the miners membership to enable them to make use of the Financial Inclusion & Payment System Reform through which CBN is trying to encourage small and informal exporters to channel their transactions through the banking system, a move which informed the bank’s decision to introduce the ECOWAS Trade Support Facility (ETSF).

This initiative, said the NEXIM boss, will leverage on commercial banks’ channels to target the development of the non-oil sectors of the economy in agriculture, solid minerals etc, finance Greenfield projects and export-oriented SMEs such as the Miners Association membership.

He explained the bank’s penetration strategy for solid minerals and reiterated the readiness to provide the necessary assistance to identify capable indigenous or foreign junior mining companies to partner in mining activities; explore opportunities to attract foreign mining companies with capacity to explore and mine; cluster marketing/awareness campaigns; referrals from partnerships; organisation of trainings & workshops for small and medium scale mining and export and present business case for availing the Solid Minerals Development Fund, as specified in the Mining & Minerals Act of 2007.

Source : The Nation