Nigeria has earned a total of N651.55 billion ($2.68 billion) from its Solid Minerals sector in fourteen years, a new report from the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative has shown.
In 2020, the federation account received the sum of N114.88 billion as revenue from Solid Minerals, up from the N74 billion earned in 2019.
The report further noted that in 2020, Ogun, Kogi, Cross River, Edo led the states with the highest contribution to royalties earned from the solid minerals sector. A total of N3.106 billion was earned from the sector as royalties in 2020.
Despite the increasing revenues, the report noted that a sum of N2.76 billion was not remitted because 2,119 companies did not pay the annual service fee for their mineral titles.
The report raised alarm over the production of minerals in states that have high potentials such as Nasarawa, Plateau, Enugu but performing below expectations with low royalties.
Earlier this year, the Nigerian Minister of Mines and Steel was quoted as stating that Nigeria is blessed with 44 different Minerals in 500 locations, he also stated that the government remained committed to tapping from the resource of the sector.
The report recommended that the government must ensure furtherance of the solid mineral sector reforms and improving technical capabilities in the sector, as a way to ensure maximization of the sector’s capabilities. According to NEITI, creating an enabling environment as a way of attracting investments into exploration and exploitation of minerals with higher values in the states is also critical to the success of the sector.
Nigeria’s Solid Minerals sector growth may allow it to achieve its aims of creating jobs and increasing national income ‘far exceeding the Petroleum sector’.