Nigeria’s solid mineral earnings rise to N69.5bn – NEITI

The latest audit report on the Nigerian solid mineral sector, released on Sunday, puts the revenue generated from the industry at N69.47 billion in 2018.

According to the report, the latest figure translates to a 31.67% increase over what was achieved in 2017, which stood at N52.76 billion.

It is the largest income generated in that segment of the economy in twelve years says the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and the highest since the NEITI introduced the reconciliation of payments into the industry.

“Nigeria has published eight cycles of solid minerals audit reports since it signed up to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.

“The sector has contributed N416.32bn in revenues to the federation in 12 years. Over a half of this figure or N279bn was earned between 2015 and 2018,” the report reads in part.

The audit took into consideration details of companies’ payments and government receipts from the solid mineral industry in 2018 while factoring in production volumes and movement in income trends from the sector to government’s purse between 2007 and 2018.

At N65.69 billion, tax remittance to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) constituted 94.56% of the total revenue sum of N69.47 billion.

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Fees and royalties paid to the Mines Inspectorate Department made up N2.21 billion or 3.18 per cent of the earnings while N1.57 billion or 2.26% accounted for the rest.

Income generated by government through solid minerals has varied and wavered over the years with N64.46 billion earned in 2015 and N43.22 billion in 2016.

The NEITI report notes that Nigeria produced minerals weighing 46.68 million metric tonnes and estimated at N47.87 billion in the period under review.

Limestone and granite took the largest portions of this volume, accounting for 54.85 per cent and 23.88 per cent of total production respectively.

Interestingly, Nigeria is still several miles away from its solid mineral production potential with industry estimate putting its annual revenue generation capacity at $60 billion (about N21.9 trillion).

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