President Muhammadu Buhari, was on Thursday, presented with Nigeria’s first artisanally-mined gold by the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Development Initiative (PAGMDI).
President Buhari asserted that the Federal Government is committed to establishing gold refineries in Nigeria; assuring the public that gold mining would earn the country over $500 million annually and help create 250,000 jobs for Nigerians.
“These developments will also help in improving our foreign reserves by enabling the Central Bank of Nigeria to increase the amount of gold in its reserves,” he said.
President Buhari in 2019, inaugurated the PAGMDI to address the issues of illegal gold smuggling and to facilitate the integration of artisanal gold mining into the formal sector.
