The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, has dismissed reports that Nigeria sold $700 billion worth of solid minerals to the United States, insisting that no national asset has been sold or transferred under the bilateral cooperation agreement.
Alake spoke on Tuesday in Abuja during the inauguration of the Nigeria-United States Committee on Strategic Cooperation in the Solid Minerals Sector. He said the agreement was designed to attract investment and promote partnerships between American investors and Nigerian operators, not to transfer ownership of the country’s mineral resources.
“There is no sale of any Nigerian asset. There’s nothing exchanging hands,” the minister said.
He explained that the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by both countries provides a government-to-government framework for facilitating business-to-business engagements.
According to Alake, the arrangement would connect American investors with local operators to develop Nigeria’s solid minerals sector.
“We created a platform to facilitate mingling of US investment ventures with Nigeria’s local operators. It is in the public domain. We signed it in public and published it in four or five national newspapers,” he said.
The committee’s inauguration followed the strategic cooperation framework established between Nigeria and the US during the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Alake also rejected claims that Washington intended to take over Nigeria’s mineral resources and security architecture, describing such reports as misleading.
Nigeria seeks greater value from mineral resources
The minister said the partnership aligns with President Bola Tinubu’s economic diversification agenda, which seeks to reduce Nigeria’s dependence on crude oil by developing its solid minerals sector.
He argued that resource-rich African countries had long exported raw materials without retaining enough value from their extraction and processing.
Nigeria, he said, intends to change that pattern by attracting foreign capital, technology and expertise while ensuring that more value is created locally.
“We have the resources, the critical elements the world needs to transit to clean energy. So we are creating a new paradigm you bring your capital, expertise and technology, to match with our natural resources and create a win-win situation. The investor gains, Nigeria gains,” Alake said.
He lamented that much of Nigeria’s solid minerals industry remained informal, with minerals often transported directly from mining sites to ports without adequate local processing.
To address the problem, the Federal Government has introduced a policy requiring investors to demonstrate plans for processing minerals locally before receiving mineral titles.
Alake said the policy had encouraged the establishment of processing facilities across the country. He cited a lithium processing plant in Nasarawa State, which he described as the largest in West Africa and said was recently commissioned by the Vice President.
He also linked the government’s reforms to the establishment of the African Minerals Strategy Group, which aims to strengthen cooperation among African countries on mineral development.
Alake attributed renewed investor confidence to the Tinubu administration’s macroeconomic reforms, which he said provided assurances on security of tenure and the repatriation of profits.
He charged members of the newly inaugurated committee to identify viable investment opportunities, coordinate activities and translate the bilateral framework into measurable outcomes.
The minister said the committee’s work was important to achieving President Tinubu’s target of building a $1 trillion economy.
In his welcome address, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, Faruk Yusuf Yabo, said the committee would provide a structured framework for practical cooperation and investment mobilisation.
Jonathan Baas, an economic officer at the US Embassy, said President Donald Trump had prioritised energy, artificial intelligence and superintelligence, as well as critical minerals, in the work of American embassies.
Baas said the US was seeking partnerships that would strengthen critical mineral supply chains while ensuring that partner countries benefited from the value generated.
“We just signed a contract today on looking into building AI data centres in Nigeria at the Nigerian Economic Summit. That’s the direction Washington wants us to go,” he said.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Solid Minerals Company said the committee would coordinate implementation, facilitate investment and monitor progress under the cooperation framework.
The inauguration marks a step towards formalising Nigeria-US collaboration in the solid minerals sector, with the government maintaining that the arrangement is intended to promote investment rather than transfer ownership of the country’s natural resources.
