Nigeria NOW! investors expo launches in Abuja with four ministries behind it

The Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals Development launched the November expo with a commitment to stay involved through the preparatory period, naming three further ministries as deliberate participants and asking that the event be judged on what is delivered after it closes.

At the Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals Development in Abuja on Thursday, the maiden edition of the Nigeria NOW! Global Investors Expo was launched with a promise unusual for an event of its kind. The Ministry’s support, the Honourable Minister’s address said, will not end with the briefing, and the event should be judged by the partnerships initiated, projects advanced and investment commitments followed through after November, with a mechanism for recording agreed actions and tracking them.

The address of Dr Dele Alake was read by Engr. O. S. Nkom, Director-General of the Mining Cadastre Office, with the Minister on official business outside the country. Dr Vivian Okono, Director of Mines Environmental Compliance, opened on behalf of Permanent Secretary Engr. Faruk Yusuf Yabo. The Minister has accepted to serve as Patron of the maiden edition.

The involvement of three further ministries, Industry Trade and Investment, Power, and Petroleum Resources, was described as deliberate. A mine cannot run without reliable power, roads, railways, processing facilities, finance and predictable regulation, the address reasoned, and no single ministry can address that spread alone. State governments will have room of their own, presenting projects and infrastructure needs directly to the investors in the room.

The direction of travel for the sector was set out with equal clarity. The Ministry is moving from the extraction and export of raw minerals towards processing, manufacturing and employment, and it is looking for patient capital, modern equipment and investors who protect host communities and keep transparent relationships with government.

Questions from the floor covered illegal mining, artisanal miners and the pace of visible change, and Nkom answered with the reform record. The 2009 mining law is under amendment, the value addition regulation dates from 2024, community development agreement guidelines were issued the same year, and a dedicated artisanal and small-scale mining department now organises informal miners into cooperatives. The Nigerian Minerals Resources Decision Support System gives investors a single point of entry across the agencies. Reform, he said, is a marathon rather than a sprint.

For EnergyNet, Abdoulaye Sylla, the company’s Portfolio Manager and Head of Corporate Development, said the return to Nigeria after eight years follows market research showing projects moving at the pace international partners require, and that the expo is designed around deep dives into specific projects, from large-scale infrastructure to multilateral programmes such as Mission 300. Registration has opened, 500 to 600 are expected in November, and the venue is committed for multiple years. The Ministry has asked to be measured on what comes of it, and the company has built the event on the same premise.