The Federal Government has launched a groundbreaking grant programme aimed at unlocking Nigeria’s vast mineral resources, boosting local value addition, and attracting private sector investment into the mining industry.
The initiative, known as the Early-Stage Mineral Exploration and Research Grant Endowment (EMERGE), was unveiled in Abuja on Wednesday by the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Henry Dele Alake, as part of efforts to deepen exploration activities and strengthen the country’s solid minerals sector.
Speaking at the launch ceremony held at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, Alake described the programme as a strategic intervention designed to bridge a long-standing financing gap in the mining industry by supporting early-stage exploration, mineral processing technologies, and research.
According to him, EMERGE introduces dedicated grant funding for mineral exploration and value-addition projects, providing a crucial foundation for transforming Nigeria’s mineral wealth into commercially viable and investment-ready opportunities.
“EMERGE adds the missing first rung to the ladder of support we have built for this sector. It speaks directly to two of our priorities: generating the reliable data on our priority minerals that sound investment depends on, and driving the value addition and processing that keep more of our minerals’ worth here at home,” he said.
“For the first time, this country is offering dedicated grants not only for exploration, but for the science of turning what we dig into finished, higher-value products. This is President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda at work in the solid minerals sector, and our Seven-Point Agenda moving from paper to practice.”
The programme, funded and implemented by the Solid Minerals Development Fund (SMDF), will provide support through three funding streams. These include an Exploration Stream for grassroots mineral exploration outside Nigeria’s critical minerals priority list, a Critical Minerals Stream focused on priority minerals and local processing technologies, and a Research and Development Stream targeted at universities, research institutions and individual researchers engaged in geoscience and mineral-processing innovation.
Applications for the grants will open on July 10, 2026, and successful proposals will be assessed on a rolling basis.
Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of SMDF, Hajiya Fatima Umaru Shinkafi, said the programme would help unlock projects that have historically struggled to attract early-stage funding.
“For too long, Nigeria’s mineral wealth has sat in the ground as unrealised potential, its most promising projects unable to attract early funding. EMERGE changes that, funding early-stage exploration, the processing technologies that add value at home, and the research behind them, then helping grantees move from grants to private investment,” she said.
Shinkafi noted that the initiative builds on previous interventions by the Fund, including the AFC-SMDF Project Development Facility, the development of a landmark alumina refinery project, and support for certified gold supplied to the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Beyond grant financing, the programme also features the EMERGE Accelerator, a business-support platform that will automatically enroll beneficiaries under the Exploration and Critical Minerals streams.
The accelerator will provide intensive training and mentorship covering technical exploration standards, investment readiness, corporate governance, regulatory compliance, financial management and investor engagement.
According to the organisers, the objective is to ensure that grant recipients are equipped to attract private investment and scale their projects into commercially sustainable ventures.
The programme complements the AFC-SMDF Project Development Facility launched in partnership with the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) in 2023 to accelerate the development of priority mining projects and build a pipeline of high-impact assets for the sector.
Industry stakeholders at the launch described EMERGE as a significant milestone in Nigeria’s efforts to diversify its economy, strengthen local mineral processing capacity and position the mining sector as a major contributor to economic growth, job creation and industrial development.
The Federal Government said the initiative aligns with President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda and the Ministry’s Seven-Point Agenda for transforming the solid minerals sector into a key driver of national prosperity.
