NEITI: Nigeria Earned N416bn from Solid Minerals Mining in 12 Years

NEITI: Nigeria Earned N416bn from Solid Minerals Mining in 12 Years

By Chineme Okafor

Solid minerals mined from Nigeria between 2007 and 2018 contributed N416.32 billion in revenues to the federation, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has said.

In 2018 alone, the solid minerals sector contributed N69.47 billion to the federation revenue.

NEITI explained that the figure was the highest so far since it began to track and document payments in the sector.

NEITI, in a statement containing the result of its annual audit report on the sector for 2018, said the figure indicated an increase of N16.71 billion representing 31.67 per cent over the 2017 revenue of N52.76 billion.

The statement, which was signed by NEITI’s Director of Communications, Dr. Orji Ogbonanya Orji, noted that the N69.47 billion earned represented 16.69 per cent of the N416.3 billion the sector paid to the federation between 2007 and 2018.

NEITI said the audit report reconciled companies’ payments and government’s receipts from the sector in 2018 as well as tracked production volumes and trends of revenues from the sector to the Federation Account from 2007 to 2018.

In its breakdown of the receipts, it stated that taxes to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) accounted for N65.69 billion or 94.56 per of the total payment in 2018, while fees and royalties paid to the Mines Inspectorate Department (MID) and Mining Cadastre Office (MCO) accounted for N2.21 billion or 3.18 per cent and N1.57 billion or 2.26 per cent of the earning respectively.

“Nigeria has published eight cycles of solid minerals audit reports since it signed up to the EITI. The sector has contributed N416.32 billion in revenues to the federation in 12 years. Over half of this figure or (N279.0 billion) was earned between 2015 and 2018. “This shows that there had been a remarkable increase in revenues accruing to the federation from the solid minerals sector over the years,” said the NEITI.

NEITI stated that the latest audit report showed that over the years, the sector has also witnessed fluctuations in revenue earnings.

“For instance, in 2015, N64.46 billion accrued to the federation, while in 2016, the earnings dipped to N43.22 billion. It will be recalled that 2016 was also the year that the Nigerian economy slid into recession,” it said.

According to it, the report showed that the main sources of revenue flows from solid minerals were the various categories of taxes, royalty, permits, annual services and sub-national payments.

It added that sub-national payments and other taxes accounted for N1.54 billion representing about 2.23 per cent of total government revenue from the sector.

On production, the NEITI report showed that 46.68 million metric tonnes of minerals valued at N47.87 billion were produced in Nigeria in 2018.

“The production data was based on minerals either used or sold during the year,” it said while explaining that a breakdown of the production volumes showed that limestone and granite accounted for about 80 per cent of the total minerals produced.

“Limestone alone contributed 54.85 per cent while granite accounted for 23.88 per cent of minerals mined,” it said.

On state-by-state production, the report showed that in 2018, most of the mining activities in the country took place in Ogun State, which reportedly accounted for 12.66 million metric tonnes or 27.13 per cent of the total volume produced during the period under review.

NEITI also noted that Ogun State was followed by Kogi and Benue States, which accounted for 22.88 per cent and 10.10 per cent respectively of the production volumes.

“However, on the bottom of the table are states like Enugu and Borno states which contributed 0.02 per cent and 0.001 per cent respectively,” it said while stating that Dangote Cement Plc and Larfarge Africa Plc dominated activities in minerals produced by companies.

“The two companies contributed 57.22 per cent of the total minerals produced in 2018. From the report, while Dangote Cement accounted for 46.38 per cent, Larfarge Africa was responsible for 10.84 per cent,” it added.

With regards to employment, it said the contribution of the sector to job creation in 2018 was 9,873, with 96.53 per cent of the jobs occupied by men while women took 3.47 per cent.

“Only six physically challenged persons were recorded as being employed in the sector in 2018,” the NEITI report noted.

On the contribution of the solid minerals industry to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2018, the report said the figure of N224.79 billion, representing 0.18 per cent of the country’s GDP, which was quoted by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), was right.

“A breakdown of this figure shows that quarrying and other minerals accounted for 0.16 per cent, while coal and metal ores accounted for 0.01 per cent each,” it said.

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