Startrend International Magazine For Your Latest News And Entertainment Gists
By Raymond Osho
ABEOKUTA – Following President Muhammadu Buhari’s effort to diversify the economy into production of processed gold, the federal government on Friday, September 25, 2020, disclosed plans to create local markets where jeweleries made from gold would be sold to boost the county’s foreign reserve.
According to the Minister of Mine and Steel, Arch. Olamilekan Adegbite, the local markets will be located in Lagos and Kano states where people from within and outside the state can visit to buy jewelries.
To make this visible, Adegbite said 45 people have been selected across the country to be trained by experts from Germany on gold processing and jewelries making.
The Minister who spoke while addressing journalists in Abeokuta, the state capital on Friday, added that the 45 people would be equipped with training materials to in turn train other people in each state of the federation on how to make jewelries.
He stated that the sole aim of government was to create employment, value and as well as generating revenue towards the mandate of rehabilitating the country’s economy.
He stated, “We are bringing in expert from Germany and we are training the trainers. We have selected 45 people across this country and what we are doing is to train these 45 people and they will go back to the state, we will provide equipment for them and training materials so that they can train people in the states on how to make jewelries. They will design it then Goldsmith will make the jewelries.
“What we are trying to do is to create a local market in Nigeria, so we are looking at Kano and Lagos so we can have places in Kano and Lagos where people can come even from outside the country deliberately to visit the suit and buy jewelries, that is what we are working on.”
The Minister added ” This of course is creating employment, creating value and at the same time generating revenue for government towards our mandate (employment, revenue and diversification of Economy)”
Adegbite hinted that Federal government is also designating some specialised Bank that would have the ability to do valuation so that gold would be valued and owners would also be given certificate.
With the certificate, Adegbite stressed that the person could approach any financial institution and use the certificate to get two million to do business.
“People can take their gold jewelries to those Bank and the Bank will do a valuation of it and they will be given a certificate in the value of the gold so if someone has a gold jewelry worth five million naira the person will be given a certificate of give million naira with that certificate the person to any financial institution and can use the certificate to get two million to go and do business”, he posited.
