The National Gold Purchase Programme started in 2018 has recorded its first international business transaction. Mr. Dele Alake, minister of Solid Minerals made this known in a recent statement. According to Alake, “This marks the first commercial transaction under the National Gold Purchase Program (NGPP), which is a centralised offtake scheme supported by a decentralised aggregation and production network of artisanal and small-scale miners and cooperatives.” Obviously elated by the development, the minister said he had presented the first batch of the gold under the programme to the president, Bola Tinubu.
He said the bars, which he asserted were of international standard, were sources from “artisanal and small gold miners and refined by an agency” of the ministry. The agency is known as Solid Minerals Development Fund. That first transaction, the minister added, fetched Nigeria $5 million.
And it is a celebration of an additional legal foreign exchange earnings for the country, as he said that having met the London Bullion Market Association Good Delivery Standard, the gold “will soon be sold to the Central Bank of Nigeria to strengthen our foreign reserves.”
The Minister of Solid Minerals Dele Alake on Sunday said it earmarked $5m from gold bars transactions.
The minister in a post on X formerly Twitter, said he recently presented the first batch of the gold bars under the National Gold Purchase programme to President Bola Tinubu.
Recall that the gold purchase scheme began under the former administration of President Muhammad Buhari in 2018.
Former Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi, who started the scheme, had said it included equipping the artisanal miners, providing for extension services and the off-take of all gold produced under the scheme.
The development raises hope of improving the economy by strengthening the pledge by the government to diversify away from the decades of reliance on the single product of crude oil.
Mr. Alake said, the “over 70 kilograms of gold” refined under the programme will inject about N6 billion to the rural economy. What that means is that Nigeria will not just increase her foreign exchange earnings, the economy
of the affected mineral producing communities will get a boost.