FG launches EMERGE grant scheme to develop mining sector

The Federal Government on Wednesday unveiled a new grant programme aimed at accelerating mineral exploration and promoting local processing of Nigeria’s solid minerals, as it looks to grow the sector’s contribution to the economy.

The initiative, known as EMERGE, which stands for Early-Stage Mineral Exploration and Research Grant Endowment, was launched in Abuja by the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake. It will be funded through the Solid Minerals Development Fund and administered independently by PwC to ensure transparency.

Alake said the programme was designed to fill a longstanding financing gap in the mining sector and cited rapid revenue growth as evidence of the reform agenda’s early results. “In 2023, this sector earned the Federation about N16bn. In 2024, that figure rose to N38bn. In 2025, it crossed N70bn. That is growth of more than 337 per cent in two years from the same minerals, the same ground, governed differently,” he said.

The minister explained that EMERGE would operate through three streams. The Exploration Stream will fund early-stage work to identify and prove new mineral deposits. The Critical Minerals Stream will support the search for materials needed for the global energy transition and the development of refining technologies within Nigeria. The Research and Development Stream will fund geoscience and mineral-processing research underpinning both.

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The Executive Secretary of the Solid Minerals Development Fund, Hajiya Fatima Umaru Shinkafi, said the programme directly targets a persistent weakness in the sector. “EMERGE is a competitively awarded grant facility designed to address one of the most persistent gaps in our sector: the shortage of early-stage capital for exploration, for critical minerals and for research and development,” she said.

Alake added that the programme would strengthen the ministry’s Seven-Point Agenda by generating reliable mineral data and driving domestic value addition.