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Our Focus is To Create Opportunities – Minister

Published

7 years ago

December 16, 2019

The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Mr Sunday Dare, has said the Ministry’s focus is to create opportunities that will assist youth become gainfully engaged.

Mr. Dare stated this when he spoke on a panel at the 6th Annual Convention of Africa’s Young Entrepreneurs (A.Y.E) which took place in Akure the Ondo state capital on Saturday.

The Minister said the realization that the era of duplicating “empowerment programmes” is over has made the focus to shift to creating opportunities for youth that have acquired the requisite skills.

He said “It is reassuring that the Ondo state governor has launched initiatives that address poverty reduction among the youth through the Office of Innovation and Partnership that is implementing a series of human capital development programmes. Of particular note are initiatives like the Job Matching and Internship that has trained about 800 youth between April and now as well as the Technical and Vocational programme aimed at ensuring artisans are not being left out”. He described the three innovation hubs equipping Ondo State youth in the specific areas of incubation, acceleration and data sharing with artificial intelligence as impressive.

The Minister said he had taken time to outline the youth-friendly initiatives of the Ondo state government because the Governor shares the same vision with the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development which sees the youth as resources in need of investment to realize inherent potentials.

Describing the convention as timely, he said: “This year’s convention is equally aligned with President Muhammadu Buhari’s commitment of the government to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the course of the next ten years”.

While calling on policymakers to make investments in line with the digital revolution era, he said the Federal Government is working to bridge the Digital Skills Gap which exists in Nigeria and Africa at large, which he described as the reason most youths remain unemployed.

The minister explained that “It is for this reason that we are focusing on creating opportunities so that youth have been trained in empowerment programmes can put their acquired skills to use.”

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Alake Inaugurates Nigeria-US Solid Minerals Committee, Dismisses $700bn Claim, Says No Assets Sold

Published

4 days ago

October 28, 2026

The Gleamer

Joel Ajayi

The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, on Tuesday inaugurated the Nigeria-United States Committee on Strategic Cooperation in the Solid Minerals Sector in Abuja, dismissing reports that Nigeria sold $700 billion worth of solid minerals to the US.

The inauguration followed the strategic cooperation framework established between Nigeria and the United States during the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York.

In a statement issued on Wednesday by the Head PRESS and Public Relations Department Mrs. Kania Maliki Andeyaba stated that, Alake in the Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, signed with the US is a government-to-government platform to facilitate business-to-business engagements between American investors and Nigerian local operators, not a sale of assets.

Harping on the importance of the solid minerals sector to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s economic diversification agenda, he noted that the administration was committed to reducing dependence on a mono-product economy through the sustainable development of Nigeria’s vast mineral resources.

According to him, the Nigeria–US partnership as a strategic initiative to attract investment, promote technology transfer, strengthen local mineral processing and create employment opportunities.

“There is no sale of any Nigerian asset. There’s nothing exchanging hands,” Alake declared.

“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 said reports claiming the US was coming to take over Nigeria’s minerals and security architecture were untrue at best and products of riotous imagination at worst.

Explaining the policy thrust, Alake said Africa has historically held the short end of the stick in global economic transactions, and Nigeria is determined to change that model.

“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.

Nigeria, he stressed, had operated a mono-cultural economy dependent on oil, while solid minerals were exploited informally — with ores taken “from pit to port” without value addition.

Alake said government has now made local processing mandatory, refusing to grant mineral titles to investors without a clear pathway to processing in Nigeria.

He said the policy led to the springing up of processing factories, including the largest lithium processing plant in West Africa commissioned recently in Nasarawa by the Vice President, and informed the formation of the African Minerals Strategy Group.

Alake noted that investor confidence has returned due to macro-economic reforms by President Bola Tinubu that guarantee security of tenure and repatriation of profits.

He charged the committee to discharge its assignment responsibly, saying its work is strategic to achieving the President’s $1 trillion economy target.

To this end, he told the Committee to ensure effective coordination, identify investment opportunities and translate the framework into measurable outcomes capable of positioning Nigeria as a competitive player in the global solid minerals industry.

In his welcome address, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Engr. Faruk Yusuf Yabo, said the inauguration translates growing bilateral engagements into a structured framework for practical cooperation and investment mobilization

Economic Officer at the US Embassy, Jonathan Baas, said President Donald Trump has prioritized three areas for US embassies — energy, artificial intelligence/super intelligence, and critical minerals.

Baas said Washington’s direction is to work with partners to secure critical supply chains while ensuring partners capture value.

“We just signed a contract today on looking into building AI data centres in Nigeria at the Nigerian Economic Summit. That’s the direction Washington wants us to go,” he said.

In his vote of thanks, CEO/Managing Director of Nigeria Solid Minerals Company, NSMC said that the committee

is expected to coordinate implementation, facilitate investment and monitor progress towards achieving the objectives of the Nigeria–US cooperation framework.

The inauguration reinforces the Federal Government’s commitment to repositioning the solid minerals sector as a key driver of economic diversification, industrial development and national prosperity under President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.

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