 It is such a great pleasure to join you as we open the fifth annual Nigeria Mining Week Discourse Series. The theme, Top Seven Reasons to Invest in Nigeria's Mining Sector, is really quite an intriguing one because it really does focus our attention on what has been the main objective of our exertions as a government in the mining sector in the past few years, and that is attracting local and foreign investment to our mining sector. I've not had a discussion with the Honourable Minister of Mines and Steel on the seven reasons he and his team intend to advance for investing in mining in Nigeria, but I've heard, I listened to his presentation earlier, and of course the very attractive incentives that he spoke about. But the one reason I think is indisputable, and he alluded to this in several ways, and this is that our strong policy, you know, the strong policy and regulatory framework which we have diligently and methodically developed over the years, that framework is possibly our strongest argument for bringing in or for seeking to attract investors into Nigeria. So the development of the mining sector has been an important component of our economic policy, at least since the inception of our administration in 2015. What will be evident to a potential investor is that we have built a robust framework for the mining sector line by line, and as it were precept by precept, in 2016 the Ministry of Mines and Steel development in collaboration with industry stakeholders produced a clear roadmap for the growth and development of the Nigerian mining sector. In pursuit of the goals set forth in the roadmap, government then initiated an ambitious reform regime in the sector. The flagship of that reform is the National Integrated Mineral Exploration Program, NIME, designed to rapidly generate geological data with the aim of de-risking the sector and attracting high-caliber investments. Today the mining sector features prominently in our national development plan 2021 to 2025, which was approved by the Federal Executive Council barely a week ago. So this is an issue that has had the benefit of the deep consideration of a robust team aside from all relevant federal officials, but also state governors, representatives of local governments in Nigeria and the private sector. As we deepen our efforts to revitalize the mining sector, we are doing so with lessons learned from a half-century of resource extraction. We recognize for instance that it is not enough to seek investments merely for the sake of exploitation and extraction. Together in writing this new chapter of economic growth, our aim is to develop local industries, generate employment, and focus on resource beneficiation to create wealth along the mineral value chain. Concurrently, there is an ongoing review of the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act 2007, aimed at bringing legislation into conformity with global best practices, limiting the role of government to that of regulation and creating the space for the private sector to maintain a more expansive presence in the sector. The early evidence that our framework is on the right track is the inflow of notable investments and some of which the Honourable Minister has already referred to. These include Thor Exploration's Sekilola Gold Mine in Oshun State with an initial production capacity of 80,000 ounces of gold annually, representing the first large-scale gold mine in Nigeria. In June last year, I also had the privilege of commissioning the Duke Air Gold and Precious Metals Refinery. The company set out to be a foremost indigenous refiner and trader of gold and other precious metals. Its potential impact on the gold sector is nothing short of revolutionary. By providing off-take opportunities through the establishment of precious metals buying centres, it serves as a spur for more small and medium-scale mining investment, while its refinery symbolizes its focus on value addition in the gold and precious metals industry in Nigeria and West Africa. A similarly remarkable investment is the integrated iron ore mining and processing plant set up by the African Natural Resources and Mines Limited in Carduna, which has an initial production capacity of 4,704, 4.7 million tons of iron per annum, and will scale up to 5.88 million tons per annum. It is significant that within the space of a year, we have recorded a 26.7 increase in revenue generation from $2.559 billion in 2019 to $3.242 billion in 2020, but while this is encouraging, we recognize that there is still a lot of work to be done, and that is why this forum is so important. We are privileged to have in attendance so many distinguished experts and resource persons that deeply understand governance vis-à-vis the mining sector in Nigeria, and you're all leaders in this field, and I'm confident that your knowledge, experience, and expertise will provide important insights for optimizing the Nigerian mining sector. I must say that the Honorable Minister of Mines and Steel, architect Olam Ileko Adibute, and his Minister of State, Dr. Uchechuku Oga, deserve, and their team, deserve very, very hearty congratulations and commendations for the very hard work that they have done, and their focus, and the way that they have used tremendous insight locally and internationally to advance all of the interests of the mining sector in Nigeria. I also look forward to this event serving as a solid platform for strategic reflection, incubation of ideas, and production of actionable policy propositions on diverse issues of mining along its value chain. I wish you great success in your deliberations, and I'd like to formally, therefore, declare open this fifth annual Mining with Discourse series, and I thank you very much for your kind attention. Thank you very much. God bless you.