Governor Sei MakindeGbenro Adesina/Ibadan

Oyo State Government is setting its eyes on the solid mineral sector to boost its Internally-Generated Revenue, IGR, the Special Adviser on Solid Minerals Development, Mr Abiodun Oni, has said.

Oni stated this at the just-concluded fourth edition of the Nigeria Mining Week held at the NAF conference centre, Abuja.

While making a presentation titled, “Oyo State to the World: Bridging the gap between potential and investments”, Oni stated that the state government would rely on solid minerals to finance its the social interventions and welfare programmes.

Pointing out that Oyo State has billions’ naira worth of mineral resources that are yet to be explored and exploited, he maintained that the state government is making frantic efforts to put solid mineral development on the map.

According to Oni, the state government is targeting solid mineral development because it remains one of the quick wins for it to boost its internal revenue.

He said that the government was set to put money into the sector towards data gathering, digitisation, availability and accessibility adding, “A major part of our budget is all about data. We are committed to that in Oyo State. I told the governor we can’t move forward if we don’t have data. We cannot brag about anything; we can’t tell anybody what we have in the ground is bankable. So, the first thing we are targeting is to gather the appropriate data”.