ECONOMIC BOOST: Australian govt, NGO encourage women, youths to embrace mining

The Australian Government, working in collaboration with Conservative Environmental Growth and Development Centre (CEGDEC), a non-Government organisation in Nigeria have held a one-day workshop on building a local economic and social development initiative for women and youths in the mining sector.

The event took place at the Olode Aquamarine community, Oluyole, Ibadan, the Oyo state capital.

Speaking, at the occasion, the Executive Director of the organisation, Mrs Maryam Olayeni said that a transformation in the mining industries worldwide, targeted at creating wealth in the mineral industry, has not been significantly recorded for a number of minerals in Nigeria.

She regretted, however, that Nigeria, as a rich nation, has not fully invested positively in the mining, as a wealth creation platform for her economic development.

“It is good that the current national drive towards breaking the dependence on oil has now attracted development on solid mineral sector across the country.

“Oyo State is rich in mineral resources, ranging from the semi-precious metals, precious metals, base metals to gemstones, and they have attracted many mining activities in the recent times.

“Olode aquamarine gems field of Oluyole Local Government has particularly received massive participation of medium scale mining activities in recent times. Whereas the women and youths in this community have not fully benefited as stakeholders, as there has not been significant social and economic development attributed to them from the aquamarine,” Olayeni said.

Touching on the challenges in the sector, Olayeni said that the people lack the skills and technology to process the gemstone, coupled with the fact that they are faced with marketing challenges. “The locals here do not get good value on their stones in the supply chain in the long run,” she said.

Olayeni said that the workshop would empower the local women and youth, who in turn would in turn build up others in area of capacity building.
She is optimistic that the training would help build the people’s capacity through cooperative and engagement in meaningful businesses to grow the nation’s economy, which would provide economic and social benefits for Nigerians similar to the situation in Australia.