The Honourable Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Arc Olamilekan Adegbite gave this charge in5 Ibadan recently, during the opening session of the 2023 Ministerial Retreat organised by the Ministry.

While applauding the Management and staff for successes recorded so far, he called for improved performance that will ensure the Ministry attains the economic diversification bid of the present administration. Adding that the retreat will bring about robust deliberations that will further catapult the the Ministry to achieve greater successes in the sector.

The Minister while stating the importance of such retreats, noted that part of the resolutions of the 2019 retreat resulted in the creation of the Mining Cadastral Office (MCO) Online Portal which was launched recently; the Downstream Policy, which prevents the exportation of Raw Ore out of the Country; Data Management, among others, saying “these Policies derived from the 2019 retreat has helped to increase Revenue generation in the sector.

Adegbite called on the Staff in attendance to come up with strategies that will ensure deliberations and resolutions at the retreat cascades down to the rest of the staff. This, he believed would bring about synergy and ensure all staff in the Ministry are on the same page towards repositioning the sector and achieving the Ministry’s mandate.

In her address, the Permanent Secretary, Dr. Oluwatoyin Akinlade, stated that the topics to be discussed at the retreat which includes Environmental, Social and corporate Governance; Climate Change and Energy Transition etc, will enable the Ministry align the sector to global international best practice.

She noted that these topics would help stakeholders develop strategies that will promptly address and rectify whatever challenges faced by the Ministry and bring about synergy in the sector as well as improve the Ministry’s governance framework. She also believed that it will boost revenue generation and ultimately attract the needed investments that would drive the sector and make it the catalyst for the nations industrialization

Dr. Akinlade disclosed that the retreat agenda was carefully crafted to propel participants to design workable Action Plans and quick-wins for the sector, adding that decisions reached will form the basis of the Work Plan of each Department and Agencies as well as help to adapt to the reforms in the Federal Civil Service. She therefore, urged all participant to take the retreat seriously.

The Director, Planing, Research and Statistics in the Ministry, Mr. Ken Onwumbiko, said the retreat was basically to asses the successes of the targets set in the 2019 retreat and review the milestones achieved so far as well as chart a new course for moving the sector forward.

The participants, also believe that the evaluation process which the retreat afford, would help to facilitate the achievement of the Ministry’s Mandate in the areas of Revenue Generation, job and wealth creation.