As new investments are being made in the Nigerian mining sector and professional frameworks are put in place, nonprofit organisation the Project Management Institute’s Construction Professional Certification (PMI-CP) is helping to redefine the way in which mining and large infrastructure projects are being planned and executed.

“The mining sector in Nigeria has never really seen major formal activities, despite the formalisation efforts which resulted in the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act 2007, until five years ago. Now we are seeing a shift towards structured, environment- conscious development, and PMI-CP is playing a big role in that,” explains PMI-CP ambassador Dr Gbolahan Oyelakin.

The PMI-CP equips professionals with tools to address the environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns of project life cycles, particularly in resource-intensive sectors such as mining, construction, and oil and gas.

At the centre of this transformation is a growing focus on sustainability, which Oyelakin believes PMI-CP-certified project managers should focus on to ensure environmental protection and sustainability.

Sustainability, he says, is about delivering lasting value, aligning with global best practices and ensuring that solutions do not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

As Nigeria is yet to experience a major environmental catastrophe related to mining, despite widespread informal operations, the urgency to establish frameworks for sustainability cannot be overstated, Oyelakin adds.

One of the more pressing challenges in Nigeria’s industrial sectors is the absence of robust ESG standards and codes, specifically outside the construction industry, where local sustainability standards and codes do not exist.

He elaborates that while the banking and financial sectors, in relation to their rendering of services to the mining industry, may have ESG policies, they lack full standards or codes, and “that’s a gap that PMI can close”.

Nonetheless, Oyelakin advocates that PMI-CP-certified professionals need to lead the development and adoption of global standards, but tailored to local contexts and with an emphasis on green project management practices. This includes attention to data-protection policies, compliance with local laws and alignment with local environmental agencies’ regulations.

In Nigeria, he says some of these regulatory policies have not been adapted to meet domestic requirements, “which is a problem”, but these requirements can be brought into project planning from the outset using the skills taught by the PMI-CP certification course.

Beyond values and ethics, the PMI-CP certification also provides practical tools that enhance a mining project’s financial and operational viability.

In this regard, Oyelakin extols the use of earned value management systems to model phased investments and demonstrate a positive return on investment.

For example, upon the completion of Phase 1 of a project for a Nigerian gold mining and refining company, Oyelakin notes that the return on investment was enough for operations to start immediately.

In this instance, the PMI-CP formed a “very good learning core” that can be used in project implementation, he adds.

The PMI-CP also covers the value management system, which can be used to show how returns on investment can be approached across the different phases of a project.

Oyelakin also notes that the certification can help teams prepare for future uncertainties and, while the Covid-19 pandemic has mostly abated, a more unsettling global event could occur in the future. In this regard, he says there is an increasing engagement with technology to ensure there will be adaptability to future events.

He concludes that, as ESG demands grow, with the PMI-CP certification, project managers can integrate sustainability into their project workflows while complying with local and global standards, meet stakeholder expectations and future-proof projects, especially in mining.