Executive Secretary, Nigerian Solid Minerals Development Fund (SMDF), Hajiya Fatima Shinkafi, on Monday, said that recent reports in other media not The Guardian, involving the sponsorship of African Cup were unfounded and misleading in their entirety
It would recall that SMDF, an agency under Ministry of Solid Minerals, was established by the Parliament Act in 2007 to pursue investments that would de-risk the Nigerian mining sector to attract investors and boost economic development for diversification of the Nigerian economy.
Shinkafi, disclosed this in Abuja, while briefing newsmen on the sideline of the Presentation and Unveiling of the 2021 Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative’s (NEITI’s), Solid Minerals Industry Report, she said that she was surprised because the report was even news to her.
However, reports published in some dailies recently indicated that out of the resources made available to it between 2013 and 2014, N738.7 billion and $3 million respectively “had been illegally disbursed from the fund for extraneous expenses, including the 2015 elections, the African Nations Cup” as well as roads and drainage rehabilitation in some states.
Dismissing the reports erroneous reportage, said the SMDF never funded the African Cup of Nation or election as claimed, and could not have done so because the agency was just capitalised barely a year ago since it was set up.
According to Shinkafi, “This is news to me. I liked football. But I’ve never funded the African Cup of Nations. I have never funded that any of those things. I think it was a committee report they were quoting. The functions of the Solid Minerals Development Fund is totally different from that of Natural Resource Development Fund, NRDF. I can understand how the two can be mistaken for each other. But we are not that fund and we have never ever funded anything like the African Cup of Nations.
“As a matter of fact, the first time ever, that the fund has been capitalised was last year around May. So we didn’t even have capital at the time, hence it wouldn’t have been us. ”
She noted that the 7-point agenda unveiled recently with a target of 50% GDP increase by the Minister of Solid Minerals, Dele Alake, it is a tall order challenging for stakeholders in the sector to put their hands on the plough and step up their game for the development of the sector towards achieving the mandate.
She added, “And I think that when you set the bar high, you go for the highest possibility and achievement. Now, definitely, more can be done than is currently contributed to GDP from the sector. And I think with the measures that are in place now, we can make it even if it’s not 100 per cent.
“We are actually very excited about that announcement. The equivalent of your question is, does the PTDF conflict with NNPC? It doesn’t. We have distinct roles and mandates, and we will actually reinforce and support that cooperation.”
On the possibility of the establishment of a state owned company as proposed by the Minister conflicting in role with the SMDF, the ES said there nothing conflicting in their roles.
She also congratulate the NEITI for the 2023 report which, said that “The report is for the public and private sectors to come up with informed policies for implementation towards increased revenue for the sector and the economy in general.”
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