NEITI: Nigeria’s solid minerals sector generated N814bn in 15 years

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) says the country generated N814 billion from solid minerals from 2007 to 2021.

Ogbonnaya Orji, executive secretary of NEITI, disclosed this on Monday at the unveiling of the agency’s 2021 industry report on the solid minerals sector in Abuja.

Orji said the sector made N193.6 billion for Nigeria in 2021, a significant increase of 51.89 percent from the previous year’s revenue of N116.82 billion.

He said the growth reflected a continuation of the upward positive trajectory observed in the sector over the past five years.

“This contribution, though a significant increase over past years, is still abysmal considering the potentials of the sector to the Nigerian economy,” the executive secretary said.

Orji said the 2021 solid minerals report reviewed, ascertained, reconciled and reported all revenues and investment flows to and from the government in the sector.

A breakdown of the revenues, according to NEITI, shows that the Federal Inland Revenue Service collected N169.52 billion; Mining Cadastre Office generated N4.3 billion while the Mining Inspectorate Department raked in N3.62 billion.

Orji said the revenue to the federation account from the sector in the past 15 years — which was N818.04 billion — was significantly low compared to the economic potential of the sector.

On production, the executive secretary said the report disclosed that the total volume of solid minerals used or sold in 2021 was 76.28 million tons with a royalty payment of N3.57 billion.

“The minerals with the largest production volume in the year under review are Granite, Limestone, Laterite, Clay and Sand,” he said.

“Dangote Plc accounted for the highest production with a total production of 28.8 million tons. Bua and Lafarge accounted for 8.4 and 4.3 million tons while Zeberced accounted for 3.3 million tons respectively.

“Ogun state recorded the highest production in the year under review, with a total of 17.5 million tons followed by Kogi state with 16.3 million tons and Edo with 8 million tons.

“The least production volume was recorded in Borno State with 25,500 tons.”

On Sunday, Dele Alake, minister of solid minerals, said the federal government would soon establish the Nigerian solid minerals corporation.

Alake had expressed the government’s readiness to take the “bull by the horns” to “reap the trillion dollars worth of minerals under the ground” across the country.