Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State said now is the time for Nigeria to focus more on manufacturing because manufacturing is a source of employment, training, capital development and economic growth.
Governor Sule stated this Tuesday while delivering a speech at the 2023 National Engineering Conference Exhibition and Annual General Meeting, organised by the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), holding in Abuja.
The Governor who was among those conferred with the fellowship of the NSE at the event, identified manufacturing as critical to the economic growth and development of the country.
He therefore called on participants at the conference to focus more on manufacturing.
“I want to take the opportunity to call on everyone of us to focus on manufacturing because it’s a source of employment, training, capital development and economic growth,” he said.
The Governor used the opportunity to highlight on the inroads recorded by his administration especially in the area of mining, especially that Nasarawa State is known as the Home of Solid Minerals.
He explained that, through deliberate policies, his administration was able to turn around the mining industry which previously was dominated by illegal mining operations.
Governor Sule said the Executive Orde One passed by his administration has succeeded in sanitizing the mining sector of the state, thereby attracting genuine investors who are coming into the state to set up processing industries.
He particularly referred to the mining of lithium, a most sought-after mineral, granite and marble, with a company processing 3000 metric tones of lithium about to be commissioned in December and with Nasarawa State now producing 30 percent of the marble in the Nigerian market.
“Before I came to Nasarawa State as a Governor all the lithium mining was illegal. On coming in we established what we called the Executive Order One on Mining. What we said was that anybody who is going to mine lithium in Nasarawa State must also do at least, the first processing of lithium in Nasarawa State.
“Today, we ended up having the first company, Landmark Lithium Mining Company. It has established a 3000 metric tones processing capacity and that company is going to be commissioned in December. We have another company that is going to be processing 18,000 tonnes of lithium per day called Ganfeng Lithium Mining Company. And that company is going to be commissioned by the third quarter of 2024.
“This first company has already employed nothing less than one thousand Nasarawa State indigenes.
“Today, we have also established a company for granite and marble. If you go to the airport in Abuja, the marble you walk on is from Nasarawa State. Today, over 30 percent of the former Italian marble that is sold in Abuja market is coming from Nasarawa State,” he stated.
Governor Sule was optimistic that, apart from the immediate economic value in processing lithium, indigenes of the state are now open to access training in order to acquire knowledge on not just mining but also the manufacturing aspect of mining.
The theme for this year’s NSE conference is “Re-Engineering the Manufacturing Sector for Competitiveness and Enhanced Economic Growth” with the Vice President Kashim Shettima, Speaker, Federal House of Representatives, Rt. Hon Tajudeen Abbas, Borno State Governor, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum amongst other top dignitaries in attendance.
