How Nigeria loses $2.65bn solid mineral revenue annually  

The inability of Nigerian government to fully explore the revenue potentials in the solid mineral sector, coupled with banks’ unwillingness to advance loan facilities to the investors have been depriving the country of an estimated $2.65 billion annually, according to findings.

In addition, an aggressive investment-drive by a neighbouring West African country, Sierra Leone, has contributed in distracting foreign investors from Nigeria in the past five years.

It was learnt that the highest attention that government had paid to the sector was in 2012 when it hosted an international seminar, under the auspices of the World Solid Minerals Initiative (WSMI) with participants drawn from far and near.

One of the highlights of the seminar was that Nigeria’s name was missing among the first 10 solid mineral deposits in Africa and was not even properly classified in the world records of the countries with solid minerals.

An investor in the sector Mr. Ayedun Farina, who also doubles as the Managing Director of an indigenous firm, Multiverse Mining & Exploration Plc, lamented the losses that the country has had to suffer as a result of inability of policy makers to focus properly on a sector that would could compete with the oil and gas sector. 

“To worsen the case, banks don’t seem to understand what we mean when we approach them for loan. Nobody supports anything that has to do with mining.

“Even, when banks’ officials visit mining sites,they complain that they are only seeing forests, whereas at each mining site, a minimum of $500 million may have been sunk,” he said.

A study by WSMI revealed that in about 26 states in Nigeria, there is one mineral deposit or the other found. 

Read also:  Budget: Solid minerals was cheated – Fayemi

For instance, lead and zinc in Nassarawa State are adjudged the richest in Africa, but have remained untapped on commercial quantity. 

Also, in Plateau and Ebonyi states tin and bauxite are in commercial quantity, but are yet to be exploited to the benefits of the immediate communities as well as the country, as compared with oil.

The international body said if the minerals are tapped for export, Nigeria will be raking in a minimum of $2.5 billion yearly as revenue from the sector.

But the Minister of Steel and Solid Minerals, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, announced that plans had been concluded to see the sector contribute substantially to the 2017 budget as most of the challenges facing foreign investors had been tackled by the new directive to offer on the spot visas to them this year.

By Emma Eke….

 RipplesNigeria …without borders, without fears