Olamilekan Adegbite, the Minister of Mines and Steel Production, called on engineers in the
country to pursue opportunities in the mining sector to create employment for young people.
At the inauguration on Saturday in Abuja of Mrs Halimat Adediran as the first
female chairman of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Bwari Chapter, he made the call.
“In this country, we need to create employment for our teeming youths, we need to create wealth for this country.
“The world is moving away from fossil fuel, gone are the days of crude oil, it is going and it is a certainty. It is no longer an issue of if, it is when
“Some countries in Europe have already set dates, some call it 2025, some call it 2030 where they will not allow any fosil fuel cars on their roads again, it will be electric cars.
“At that point, who are we going to sell our petrol and crude oil to, everybody is changing due to climate change and everybody is looking for clean and renewable energy.
“Fortunately for us in Nigeria, we have a lot of minerals, we need to explore properly and exploit to give Nigeria that competitive edge in that post crude oil petroleum era,” he said.
Adegbite added that the teaching of engineering students in the country’s
tertiary institutions should also move from theory to more realistic education.
He added that to push the manufacturing industries
in the country, skills acquisition should be made compulsory.
The theme of the case, ‘Digital Economy in the
Post-COVID-19 Era: Emphasis on Opportunities,’ was quite fitting, Adegbite said.
He noted that it was necessary for the country in
the post-COVID-19 period to explore other means of generating revenue.
Similarly, Mr Ahmed Amshi, Chairman of the National Assembly Service Committee,
noted that young engineers in the mining sector have access to opportunities.
Amshi, who was the guest speaker at the event, said that all of the country’s
young engineers must see themselves as problem solvers, ready to solve any obstacle they face.
“There are quite a number of startups that young engineers can venture into such as “applying digital economy in the mining sector of Nigeria.
“Processing of solid minerals startups using prescriptive modeling to optimise mineral processing
“Preparing designs, plans and schedules for miners and mining operations as well as research and development of new mining methods and technologies.
“Developing software to support mining mining planning programmes and logistic modeling of pit operations, among others.”
Mrs. Halimat Adediran, president of the Bwari chapter of the NSE, vowed that her
tenure would take advantage of the digital economy to empower young engineers who are unemployed.
She added that for its part, the association will make efforts for some communities in
the Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory to sink two solar-powered bore holes.
Society is making efforts to affect societies and to mitigate
the spread of COVID-19 and other waterborne diseases, she said.
The highlights of the event included the opening
of the Executive Members of the Society for 2020/2021
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
