The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake, has commended President Bola Tinubu for supporting reforms in the solid minerals sector, assuring that the National Gold Purchase Programme (NGPP) will increase the country’s reserve and boost the naira’s value.
According to a statement by Special Assistant on Media to the Minister, Segun Tomori, Alake, who spoke, at the weekend, while presenting the latest gold bar sourced from artisanal and small gold miners and refined by an agency of the ministry, the Solid Minerals Development Fund, to meet the London Bullion Market Association Good Delivery Standard, said the refined gold would be sold to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to bolster foreign reserves.
The minister, explaining the significance of the event, said it marked the first commercial transaction under the NGPP, the centralised off-take scheme supported by a decentralised aggregation and production network of artisanal and small-scale miners and cooperatives.
His words: “The successful completion of the first commercial transaction clearly demonstrates the National Gold Purchase Programme’s effectiveness. It has increased the nation’s foreign reserve assets and shown that using the 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 said the first commercial transaction has delivered +$5 million increase in Nigerian’s foreign reserve assets, 70+kilogrammes of gold refined to the London Bullion Market Good Delivery Standard and successful aggregation of locally-mined gold, thereby injecting about N6 billion into the rural economy.
Tinubu, who received and displayed the symbolic gold bar, commended the ministry for achieving a major milestone in the administration’s drive to diversify the economy.
“This is another concrete step towards the diversification process under the Renewed Hope Agenda,” the President said.
In her presentation, 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.
