By Rabi Momoh
The Federal Government has begun a Gold Acquisition Programme to strengthen the country’s foreign reserves by buying locally sourced gold from artisanal miners.
The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, disclosed this during a presentation of the “Nigeria Gold Day” session at the end of the 10th Nigeria Mining Week in Abuja.
Dr Alake said the Programme, managed by the Solid Mineral Development Fund, SMDF, is a presidential initiative designed to strengthen the naira, conserve foreign exchange, and improve rural economies.
The minister is designed to achieve three key objectives: To Reduce pressure on the naira, boost foreign reserves, and stimulate massive local employment within the gold value chain.
He explained that the purchased gold is deposited at the Central Bank of Nigeria’s reserves as foreign reserves.
“The philosophy of that program, how salutary it is, is that we use our local Naira, not foreign exchange, to mop up gold and then sell it to the central bank. The central bank also pays,hand-me-back in Naira. But that gold in the vault of the Central Bank has become foreign currency, thereby decreasing the value of our foreign reserves and reducing the pressure on our local currency. That’s the essence of that program. And we started it in earnest, and it’s been driven by the SMDF,” Alake emphasized..
Dr. Alake revealed that plans were already on to increase funding for the programme in 2025, underscoring the President’s confidence in its potential to transform Nigeria’s fiscal outlook.
“And this year we are allocating more money into that program. The President understands that real growth comes from production, not importation,” he said.
For the transiency of the programme, the Minister announced, “We’re in the process of installing a digitalization system. And now we further eliminate the opportunities for leakages and for the loopholes, and fight the corruption in the system. I announced yesterday the approval of the President for establishing pre-shipment inspection agents for the solid minerals.
Now with the pre-shipment inspection phases, all the operations will be digitized, then there will be less room for interpersonal transactions”.
Earlier, the Executive Secretary of SMDF, Mrs. Fatima Shinkafi, commended government policies on repositioning the sector.
“The confidence investors are showing is a direct result of the Minister’s policy direction and the government’s commitment to responsible mining,” she noted.
She underscored the importance of the gold initiative but cautioned against speculative mining practices, advising artisanal miners to conduct thorough technical diligence before venturing into the business.
“A lot of people just jump into this without realizing that it’s a serious business, it’s serious science, it needs serious funding. Sometimes people just speculate and
running after licenses, or there’s gold behind my grandfather’s backyard, but there’s much more homework to be done, and it’s a serious business,” Shinkafi advised.
She noted that geopolitical tensions, from the U.S.-China standoff to the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, have fueled global demand for gold as a safe investment, pushing prices to record highs.
“Gold just hit $4,200 per ounce, and analysts now project $5,000. A year ago, that would have sounded impossible, now it’s a reality,” Shinkafi observed.
The SMDF boss appealed to participants for their continued support of the government’s plan to make the solid mineral sector a destination for economic diversification.
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