Britain To Partner Nigeria On Energy Minerals

By Georgina Humphrey

British government has indicated interest in partnering Nigeria on energy minerals such as lithium.

British Deputy Prime Minister, John Dowden stated this when he held talks with the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Oladele Alake in London.

Dowden who chairs the British National Economic Security Council said officials of the Department of Trade and investors would sit down to work out the details of the partnership.

He urged the Solid Minerals Minister to convey his pleasure to welcome President Tinubu to the African Summit scheduled to take place next year.

The Deputy Prime Minister who commended the Nigerian government for the policy on value addition noted that going up the value chain would create more economic opportunities for partnership between both countries.

“ You are right on value addition If the processing then happens within a Third World Country we are comfortable with, that would be good”.

Responding the minister of solid minerals development Dr. Oladele Alake said Nigeria has large deposits of minerals and ready to partner with investors from the United Kingdom adding that President Tinubu as the chief marketer of Nigeria’s investment drive would consider the invitation positively.

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He announced that the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has introduced value addition as a priority policy in the sector.

“ Our new policy places emphasis on local value addition rather than export of raw minerals so that the value of our mineral products can increase,’.

Nigeria and Britain have a long history, and If Nigeria is not doing well, Britain should be concerned. And if Nigeria is doing well, Britain can benefit from the opportunities”.

He said the Nigerian team would be willing to sit down with their British counterparts to take the discussion to the next level.

On his part, Founder and partner of Carousel Bio-Energy, promoters of the project, Jafar Hilali, briefed the meeting on his plans to intervene at every stage of the lithium value chain leading to the establishment of a lithium battery production factory.

He promised to assemble a consortium of British companies in power supply, infrastructure and lithium battery production with a projection to produce lithium battery powered energy buses for Nigeria’s domestic market.

Edited By Grace Namiji