As the Senate takes a critical review at the loses sustained through neglect of the huge potentials that lie hidden in the solid minerals, a foreign investor, Amb. Amina Temitope Ajayi has said that the Federal government will earn huge foreign revenue if it exploits the gains from mining.
The Red chamber is currently looking at the crucial role of the mining sector in the economic diversification efforts of Nigeria has again been stressed at the ongoing 3-Day investigative hearing organised by the Senate Committee on Solid Minerals Development.
The Solid Minerals investigative hearing is with the theme “The need to comprehensively review the input and output values of the Nigeria mining industry in the light of its central role to the economic diversification, foreign exchange earnings and social inclusion”.
A foreign investor, Amb. Amina Temitope Ajayi also known as “Mama Diaspora” of SV Net Mining Company Ltd, from Silicon Valley, who said she has been in this country for the past 7 months, expressed happiness that Nigeria has mineral resources all over the place and is now taking mining serious.
She said nobody is talking about oil again because of the ozone layer, adding apart from them going into mining, which is solar; “mining will give us carbon credit; that is huge. That is enough money in foreign exchange earnings.
“Now, lithium, gold, copper are the in thing. With lithium you get carbon credit; Nigeria has it all. People buy the lithium oil, that is not the money; it’s the lithium itself”.
According to her, “Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is very important. “What are we giving back to the society? The communities have to know they are rich. This is a revolution.
She disclosed that her foreign investors will arrive Nigeria in the next two to three weeks, adding that she is so blessed to have 20 up takers including Saudi Arabia and Dubai.
“I’m so blessed that when I was signing my contract with my foreign investors, CSR is the most important thing and that is what is missing in all these foreign investors. In America, you make money, you have to give back to the community. It is the private sector that takes care of the community, not the government. But in Nigeria, it is the government, while the private sector has a field day.
On illegal miners, especially the female among them, she said in her own case, she will take care of those she calls “my girls”, adding “you may call them any name, but I call them my children. I love them; with love I’m going to change their lives into positive things.
She said all the local boys, who are called names like illegal miners need love and attention. “I have made up my mind, at this stage of my life, let history remember me, once upon a time, one woman called HRH Temitope Ajayi or Mama Diaspora is calling all those kids; they are not bad kids. I’m going to empower them, get them into this. I’m telling my foreign investors, they are building houses for them.
“They felt neglected, rejected, that is why the society is calling them bad names, but for me, they are my children, they are part of my programme.
She called on the government to see CSR as very important and wants it to be made “very compulsory”, adding that she saw when the committee was asking big companies what they have done for the communities.
“They should be able to show I have done this and that. They don’t need any paperwork. Don’t forget, I’m a mother; I have reached the apex of my career and now it is what do I want to be remembered for”.
She said history is about to be made as for the first time, her Nigerian company knows the value and the potentials of mining, adding that she partners with Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Vietnam, Americans, Chinese and all the clusters.
