The Minister of Solid Minerals development, Dr Dele Alake, has pledged Nigeria’s support to the global campaign against lead poisoning in order to save the lives of vulnerable citizens in the country.
While reviewing the exhibition on the lead poisoning campaign at Lead-Free future event organised by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on the sidelines of the on-going United Nations General Assembly in New York, Dr Alake announced plans to procure additional equipment for the detection of lead in communities plagued by lead poisoning in Nigeria.
He also advocated for more enlightenment on the threat posed to persons in the mining of gold and other minerals.
The minister noted that cleaning up lead from communities would restore child and maternal health and re-emphasised the need to factor lead reduction in the process of local value addition being championed by the ministry.
Welcoming the minister to the exhibition, the USAID representative, Dr Casey Bartrem, appreciated the commitment of the minister and showed rock samples retrieved from Zamfara state in Nigeria during the clean-up that followed a lead poisoning incident, saying USAID hopes to collaborate with the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development (MSMD) in reducing lead in mineral extraction and processing.
