Nigeria seeks raw export ban

The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, has said that the ministry is working on a law to criminalise the exportation of minerals.

Nigeria is notorious for exporting raw materials for cheap and importing the finished products at high prices.

Adegbite wants exporters to add value to raw materials before shipping them out of the country.

The minister said that Nigeria could not afford to repeat the mistakes it made in the oil and gas sector in the mining industry by exporting raw ore.

He said on Monday that minerals mined across the country should be processed before being exported.

The minister said this in a statement issued by an official of his ministry, Idowu Jokpeyibo, on behalf of the ministry’s director of press.

Adegbite said his ministry was currently working a downstream policy that would make exportation of raw ore illegal.