Good afternoon. It is a great pleasure to stand before you today, not simply to launch another programme, but to mark how far we have travelled together. When this administration took charge of the solid minerals sector, we made a promise to Nigerians: that we would turn long neglected mineral wealth into real jobs, real revenue and real industry. Today, with the launch of EMERGE, I am pleased to report that the promise is being kept.
Everything we have achieved rests on a foundation laid by one man’s conviction. His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, placed economic diversification at the very heart of his Renewed Hope Agenda, and he charged this Ministry to make solid minerals a true pillar of that vision. The Seven-Point Agenda I set out is, in truth, the mining chapter of the Renewed Hope Agenda, and I am proud to say that each of its seven points has moved from paper to practice. Permit me to account for that progress, point by point.
First, on structure. We promised to establish the Nigerian Solid Minerals Corporation, a commercial vehicle that lets the Federal Government take equity and partner serious investors on a model similar to NLNG. That Corporation has now moved from idea to reality, giving the nation a proper seat at the table in its own resources.
Second, on private capital. We promised to bring credible investors into the sector. Since 2023 we have attracted in the region of $2.6 billion in fresh investment commitments, that include new lithium plants and a flagship rare earth facility.
Third, on data. We promised to replace guesswork with geoscience. We launched the Nigeria Minerals Decision Support System, an online window into our geological data, and we are launching a nationwide exploration programme under a special intervention from Mr President, so that investors can make decisions on evidence rather than rumour. Fourth, on our people. We promised to bring artisanal miners in from the cold. Through a deliberate formalisation drive, we have organised mining cooperatives and artisanal operators into the legal, taxable economy, where they can be trained, financed and protected and we continue to do so.
Fifth, on security. We promised to defend our mines. The Mining Marshals, established in 2024, have apprehended more than 300 illegal miners, secured around 150 prosecutions and recovered close to 100 illicit sites, including the recent arrest of a syndicate unlawfully extracting lithium in Nasarawa. The message is now unmistakable: those who steal from Nigeria will answer for it.
Sixth, on order and transparency. We promised to clean up the licence register. We have revoked more than 2,500 dormant or defaulting titles, returned that ground to productive hands, and revised our Community Development Agreements so that no licence is granted without the consent of the host community.
Seventh, on value addition. We promised that the days of shipping our minerals away in raw form were over. We have made local value addition the rule rather than the exception, and new processing plants for lithium, gold and rare earths are rising across the country, anchored by the $1.3 billion, 1.5 million metric tonnes per annum alumina refinery, with the firm goal that at least 30 percent of our minerals are processed here at home.
The clearest proof of all this sits in federation revenues. In 2023, this sector earned the Federation about 16 billion naira. In 2024, that figure rose to 38 billion naira. In 2025, it crossed 70 billion naira. That is growth of more than 337 percent in two years, from the same minerals and the same ground, governed differently. So when I say the Seven-Point Agenda is no longer a set of aspirations, I say it with evidence. Every one of the seven points now carries a concrete policy proposal that we are actively implementing, and the results are already in the hands of the Nigerian people.
This brings me to EMERGE and to why it matters so much. EMERGE works through three streams. The Exploration stream funds the grassroots, early-stage work that finds and proves new deposits. The Critical Minerals stream funds both the search for the minerals that the global energy transition demands and the processing technologies that let us refine them here. The Research and Development stream funds the geoscience and mineral-processing research that underpins all of it. It is this combination, and the Critical Minerals stream in particular, that begins the real domestication of our value chains, because for the first time we are funding not only the digging, but the science of turning what we dig into finished, higher-value products on Nigerian soil.
EMERGE is delivered by the Solid Minerals Development Fund, and it sits within a remarkable run of achievement by the Fund under this administration. In just a few years, the SMDF has built the AFC-SMDF Project Development Facility to co-fund and derisk commercial projects; it has delivered the 1.5 million metric tonnes per annum alumina refinery, the largest single investment commitment in our mining history; and it has supplied responsibly sourced, internationally certified gold to the Central Bank of Nigeria, helping lift our foreign reserves. EMERGE now adds the missing first rung to that ladder. In particular, it speaks directly to two of our seven priorities: it generates the reliable data on our priority minerals that the third point demands, and it drives the value addition and processing innovation that the seventh point demands.
Seen in full, the picture is of a single, connected suite of support. Where a researcher or an explorer once stood alone, there is now a grant from EMERGE at the start, technical advisory and co-funding from the Project Development Facility in the middle, and the Fund’s larger investments and partnerships at the top. This administration is no longer offering a single door. It is offering a full corridor of support, from the first geological idea to the final processed product.
Let me say a word about how this will be run, because it matters. EMERGE will be transparent and competitive from beginning to end. Applications will be assessed strictly on merit, and the process is independently administered by PwC, our Programme Administration Partner, to guarantee transparency, accountability and a level playing field for every applicant. No connections, no shortcuts, only the strength of your proposal.
I want our researchers, in particular, to hear this. For the first time in our history, this country is offering purposeful, dedicated grants for geoscience and mineral-processing research. The next breakthrough in how we process our lithium, our gold or our rare earths could well come from a laboratory in one of our own universities, and EMERGE exists to find it and to fund it. And to our companies, our explorers and our critical-minerals pioneers, let me be plain. With catalytic grants at the start, de-risking and co-funding in the middle, and an accelerator to carry you toward private investment, mining entrepreneurs in this country have honestly never had it this good. The support is here. What remains is for you to apply.
As I conclude, let me commend the Executive Secretary, and the Management and Staff of the Solid Minerals Development Fund for the vision and the hard work that have brought EMERGE to life.
And let me return, as I began, to the leadership that made all of this possible. Every reform, every naira of new revenue, every mine secured and every plant now rising from the ground traces back to the courage of one decision: His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s determination to diversify this economy and to give solid minerals their rightful place in the Renewed Hope Agenda. On behalf of this Ministry and this entire sector, Mr. President, we thank you, and we promise to keep delivering. The work is far from finished, but the direction is set, the results are real, and the momentum is ours.
I now have the honour of declaring the EMERGE Programme formally launched.
Thank you, and God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
