We Did Not Sell Nigerian Asset To United States – FG

The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, has addressed allegations that Nigeria sold $700bn worth of solid minerals to the United States.

He explained that Nigeria has only a bilateral agreement with the United States to attract investment and facilitate cooperation, not to transfer ownership of the country’s mineral assets.

Naija News reports that Alake made the clarification in a statement on Wednesday after inaugurating the Nigeria-United States Committee on Strategic Cooperation in the Solid Minerals Sector.

“There is no sale of any Nigerian asset. There’s nothing exchanging hands.

“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” Alake declared.

The committee was established following a strategic cooperation framework between Nigeria and the United States during the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Alake said that the Memorandum of Understanding signed by both countries was a government-to-government arrangement intended to facilitate business-to-business engagements between American investors and Nigerian mining operators.

He said the partnership would attract investment, promote technology transfer, strengthen local mineral processing and create employment opportunities.

The minister also dismissed reports that the United States would take control of Nigeria’s mineral resources and security architecture, calling them products of misinformation.

Explaining the rationale for the partnership, Alake said Nigeria was determined to change the pattern of international economic transactions in which African countries often received little value from their natural resources.

He noted that Nigeria had long depended heavily on oil revenues, while much of its solid minerals sector operated informally, with mineral ores extracted and exported without adequate local processing.

According to him, the Federal Government has introduced policies requiring investors to show clear plans to process minerals locally before obtaining mineral titles.

Alake said the policy had encouraged the establishment of processing factories across the country, including what he described as West Africa’s largest lithium processing plant, recently commissioned in Nasarawa State by Vice-President Kashim Shettima.