The Federal Government says the National Gold Purchase programme is set to increase the country’s reserve and boost the value of naira’s value.
Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, made the assertion while presenting the 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.
He stated that the refined gold would be sold to the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN to bolster foreign reserves.
Aleke also explained that the significance of the event marked the first commercial transaction under the National Gold Purchase Program, the centralised offtake scheme supported by a decentralised aggregation and production network of artisanal and small-scale miners and cooperatives.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, while receiving a symbolic bar, applauded the ministry for achieving a major milestone in the administration’s drive to diversify the economy.
