By SUNDAY ABBA, Abuja
The Federal Government of Nigeria has expressed satisfaction with the level the reforms being pursued at the Solid Minerals Development Fund, SMDF, has achieved so far.
The new Permanent Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development (MMSD) Dr Mary Ogbe, commended the progress made while on a familiarisation visit to the headquarters of the Fund in Abuja on Tuesday in the company of directors and other relevant members of staff of the ministry.
She maintained that there was no room for relenting in the effort to grow the country economically as such is the sector’s primary mandate.
She therefore urged the Executive Secretary, ES, of the Fund, Hajiya Fatima Umaru Shinkafi, and her team not to rest on their oars, adding that the sector cannot stop making progress until all Nigerians begin to enjoy the benefits of a developed economy.
She said, “Definitely you’ve achieved so much, but, you know, w’ll not stop achieving until everyone in Nigeria is happy, food is coming to the table of everyone. And that is the goal of all of us that God has given the opportunity to be in place of leadership.
“So we look forward to more robust, much more, you know, we’ll keep asking for much more robust relationship and association just to be able to achieve the mandate that’s been given to all of us, both the ministry and the SMDF together. We need to work together to achieve this mandate. So I thank you for having us here.”
Speaking to the main objective of the visit, Ogbe said, “We come here with a great pleasure to familiarise ourselves with the fund. Of course We have been relating quite a lot since my assumption of office, you know when you made presentation, I told you that I probably wasn’t getting it, I mean I was getting zero point something percent, but today I can say that to a very large extent, I tend to understand when you talk about these things.
“I must say that the relationship with the ministry has been symbiotic, mutual. We’ve worked together to try to bring the ministry and all its agencies together and that’s the way it should be. With the focus being the development of the country.
Speaking earlier, Shinkafi told her guest that in a bid to close the wide gaps across all aspects of the sector when she came on board as the Executive Secretary, reforms were initiated, which had reached an advanced state of implementation, especially the effort to replace the Act establishing the Fund long ago as it is now outdated and counterproductive.
“We are having this as part of our intra-ministerial collaboration. we have had crucial reforms at SMDF. Upon my appointment, I met existing gaps with regards to best practices for a development fund. Gaps across the mandate, gaps across governance, gaps across funding, gaps across risk management and investment processes that needed reforming attention. Organisational structure, capabilities of the Fund, and back end processes all needed to be addressed. This was back in 2017.
“In 2020, we completed the reorganisation and engagement with the private sector as well as government institutions on what best suits Nigeria as a fund.
“As to why it takes so long, we had consultants and we had the World Bank processes for the procurement, and as you all know, World Bank procurement can drag on a bit. Thankfully, it was concluded and McKinsey came up with a robust report that the ministry looked at with the taskforce and the rest is now history. We are at the last quarter of our implementation on those reforms.
“And the main lever that is left from those recommendations is an amendment to the law. So everything that we were recommended to do, we have done within the ambit of the law. Whatever is left is what needs to be amended through the law. And a federal executive bill was approved that went to the House of Representatives for legislative processes to take effect on it,” the SMDF boss explained.