Cyril Mbah, Abuja
The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, on Wednesday inaugurated the Nigeria-United States Committee on Strategic Cooperation in the Solid Minerals Sector, dismissing reports that Nigeria sold $700 billion worth of solid minerals to the United States.
The inauguration, which took place in Abuja, followed the strategic cooperation framework established between Nigeria and the US on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Alake clarified that the Memorandum of Understanding, (MoU), signed between the two countries is a government-to-government platform designed to facilitate business-to-business engagements between American investors and Nigerian local operators, and not a sale of national assets.
He emphasised that the solid minerals sector remains central to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s economic diversification agenda, aimed at reducing Nigeria’s dependence on crude oil through sustainable development of its vast mineral resources.
According to the Minister, the Nigeria-US partnership is a strategic initiative to attract foreign investment, promote technology transfer, strengthen local mineral processing and create employment opportunities for Nigerians.
“There is no sale of any Nigerian asset. There’s nothing exchanging hands,” Alake declared, adding, “We created a platform to facilitate mingling of US investment ventures with Nigeria’s local operators. It is in the public domain. We signed it in public and published it in four or five national newspapers.”
The Minister described reports claiming that the US was coming to take over Nigeria’s mineral resources and security architecture as false and a product of demonic, riotous imagination, insisting that no such arrangement exists.
Explaining the new policy thrust further, Alake said Africa has historically held the short end of the stick in global economic transactions, and Nigeria is determined to change that model by insisting on value addition and mutually beneficial partnerships.
“We have the resources, the critical elements the world needs to transit to clean energy. So, we are creating a new paradigm — you bring your capital, expertise and technology, to match with our natural resources and create a win-win situation. The investor gains, Nigeria gains,” he said.
Alake noted that Nigeria had for decades operated a mono-cultural economy dependent on oil, while solid minerals were exploited informally with ores taken directly from pit to port without any local processing, a practice the current administration has now banned.
He disclosed that the Federal Government has made local processing mandatory and will no longer grant mineral titles to investors without a clear pathway to in-country processing, a policy he said has already led to the springing up of processing factories, including the largest lithium processing plant in West Africa recently commissioned in Nasarawa State.
In his welcome address, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Engr. Faruk Yusuf Yabo, said the inauguration translates the growing bilateral engagements between both countries into a structured framework for practical cooperation and investment mobilisation.
Also speaking, the Economic Officer at the US Embassy, Jonathan Baas, said President Donald Trump has prioritised three areas for US embassies — energy, artificial intelligence/super intelligence, and critical minerals — adding that Washington’s goal is to work with partners to secure critical supply chains while ensuring partners capture value, including building AI data centres in Nigeria.
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