Reappointment As SMDF Boss: MAN Felicitates Shinkafi, Urges Fund’s Upgrade To Sector’s Premium Financier
By ABAH ADAH, Abuja
The Miners Association of Nigeria (MAN) has hailed the reappointment the Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer (ES/CEO) of the Solid Minerals Development Fund (SMDF) and the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Initiative (PAGMI), Hajiya Fatima Shinkafi, by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
In a statement, the President of MAN, Dele Anyanleke, while congratulating Shinkafi, thanked the President for the appointment renewal, describing it as a divine call well deserved.
The country’s Chief Miner also used the opportunity to make certain prayers aimed at deepening the gains of sector by further strengthening its financing system.
He urged Shinkafi not to only work towards ensuring that the SMDF/AFC (Africa Finance Corporation) collaboration close deals that will inject the much needed investments into the sector in the most pragmatic way, but to also explore further opportunities for similar collaborations, especially toward the funding of the small scale lease holders, whose operations, he said, offer huge opportunities for massive wealth creation and poverty alleviation.
Speaking further, he said, “As the Honourable Minister, Dr Henry Oladele Alake, moves toward ensuring the repatriation of the ₦2.5b federal government intervention support for upgrading the capacity of ASM (Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining) operators, currently idling away and depreciating in value in the vault of Bank of Industry (BoI) for close to a decade, it is expected that, under her watch, the SMDF will work closely with the Minister to ensure the judicious utilisation of the fund to remarkably achieve its purpose, despite the current state of our currency.
“I will also seize this opportunity, on behalf of the Nigerian miners, to implore the federal government to review the operational guidelines of the SMDF with the view to upgrading its status as the premium financial institution for the mining sector.
“This counsel becomes imperative in view of the reluctance of most of Nigerian financial institutions to develop products and create special desks that will be manned by staff specifically trained to handle the intricate peculiar nature of mining financing, to upgrade the capacities of indigenous operators and resurge a regime of mining infrastructure to incentivize the much needed big investors to the industry.
“While pledging our readiness to work with the Executive Secretary in her onerous assignment, it is also expected that she will collaborate more with critical stakeholders in her policy formulation and strategic actions to reposition the Fund in bridging the gap in mining assets financing.
“Once again, I congratulate you and wish you a most fruitful and successful tenure.”