President Tinubu Receives Gold Bars From Alake

Solid Minerals Development Minister, Dele Alake has commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for supporting reforms in the solid minerals sector assuring that the National Gold Purchase programme will increase the country’s reserve and boost the naira’s value.

Presenting the symbolic latest gold bar sourced from artisanal and small gold miners and refined by an agency of the Ministry, the Solid Minerals Development Fund, to meet the London Bullion Market Association Good Delivery Standard recently, Alake said the refined gold would be sold to the Central Bank of Nigeria to bolster foreign reserves.

Alake said this event marked the first commercial transaction under the National Gold Purchase Program (NGPP), the centralised offtake scheme supported by a decentralised aggregation and production network of artisanal and small-scale miners and cooperatives.

He pointed out that this has increased the nation’s foreign reserves assets and shown that using the Nigerian Naira to purchase a liquid asset traded
in United States Dollars, such as gold, is a viable strategy.

Alake added that this transaction has also underscored the potential of the National Gold Purchase Program to enhance fiscal and
monetary stability.

President Tinubu commended the Ministry for achieving a major milestone in the administration’s drive to diversify the economy.

The President acknowledged this as another concrete step towards the diversification process under the Renewed Hope Agenda.