THE Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, has stated that the solid minerals sector and the National Gold Purchase Programme will raise the country’s reserves and boost the naira’s worth.
He made this statement to President Bola Tinubu while presenting him with the latest gold bar sourced from artisanal and small gold miners and polished by a Ministry agency.
Alake stated that the refined gold was purified to meet the London Bullion Market Association’s Good Delivery Standard and would be sold to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to supplement foreign reserves.
In a statement issued yesterday, the minister stated that the output was the first commercial transaction under the National Gold Purchase Programme (NGPP), a centralized offtake system supported by a decentralised aggregation and production network of artisanal and small-scale miners and cooperatives.
He said, “The successful completion of the first commercial transaction clearly demonstrates the National Gold Purchase Programme’s effectiveness.
“It has increased the nation’s foreign reserves assets and shown that using the Nigerian Naira to purchase a liquid asset traded in United States Dollars, such as gold, is a viable strategy. This transaction has also underscored the potential of the National Gold Purchase Programme to enhance fiscal and monetary stability.”
Alake noted that the first commercial transaction resulted in a +US$5 million increase in Nigeria’s foreign reserve assets, 70+ kilogrammes of gold refined to the London Bullion Market Good Delivery Standard, and the successful aggregation of locally mined gold, injecting approximately 6 billion naira into the rural economy.
President Tinubu received the symbolic bar and congratulated the Ministry on reaching a significant milestone in the administration’s economic diversification efforts.
“This is another concrete step towards the diversification process under the Renewed Hope Agenda,” the President said.
In her presentation, the Executive Secretary of the Solid Minerals Development Fund, Fatimah Shinkafi, said the London Bullion Market Good Delivery Standard is the globally recognised stringent and trusted standard that enables the global trade in gold and silver bars.
“Only gold and silver bars that meet our Good Delivery standards are acceptable in the settlement of a Loco London contract – where the bullion traded is physically held in London” she said.