Nigeria Earns N52.8bn From Solid Minerals In One Year
The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Sunday, disclosed that Nigeria earned N52.75 billion from the solid minerals sector in 2017, rising by 21 per cent from N43.22 billion recorded in 2016.
In a statement on the release of its 2017 Solid Minerals Report in Abuja, signed by its Director of Communications & Advocacy, Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, NEITI stated that from the sector’s total revenue contribution of N52.75 billion, payments to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) accounted for N49.162 billion, which is about 93 per cent of the total revenues realized during the period under review.
According to the transparency watchdog, payments to the Mines Inspectorate Department (MID) and Mining Cadastre Office (MCO) amounted to N1.59 billion and N2.08 billion or about three per cent and four per cent respectively of the total revenue from the sector. It said, “Except for revenue from MID, there was significant increase in revenue from all other streams in 2017.
“A trend analysis of the revenue flows showed that there has been a very remarkable increase in revenue accruing to the Federation from the solid minerals sector from 2013 to 2017, though 2016 witnessed a decrease of 31.02 per cent compared to 2015.
“Other revenue flows from the solid include sub-national payments. These are direct payments to states and local governments as a result of national laws, contractual obligations or local regulations which are disclosed as unilateral disclosures by the extractive companies.
“The total payment was N2.877 billion representing about 5.45 per of total government revenue from the sector.” 35.33mmt produced in 2017 NEITI further stated that in the year under review, 35.33 million metric tons of minerals valued at N32.78 billion were produced in Nigeria during the same period, adding that the production data was based on minerals either used or sold during the year.
A breakdown of the production, according to NEITI, showed that limestone, granite and laterite accounted for 85.72 per cent of the total minerals produced with limestone alone contributing about 55 per cent of the production volumes, adding, however, that in value terms, granite and limestone contributed 37.28 per cent and 35.57 per cent respectively.
Dangote, 3 others account for 77% production
NEITI also revealed that Dangote Cement dominated activities in minerals production in 2017, accounting for about 46 per cent of the total minerals production that year. Other big players in the sector, according to NEITI, included Lafarge Cement Plc, CGC Nigeria Limited and Julius Berger Plc, noting that the four major players produced over 27 million tons of minerals combined, representing 77.31 per cent of the total minerals production quantity and over 60 per cent of the production value.
Laments fiscal regime absence
NEITI lamented the absence of an industry-specific fiscal regime which made it difficult to tie revenue flows from the solid minerals industry to the federation account.
According to the organization, the development equally affected efforts at quantifying the contribution of the solid minerals sector to Nigeria’s GDP, which presently stands at current basic price of N113.72 trillion.
“The report however highlighted that the sector’s contribution to GDP was an abysmal 0.11 per cent, which showed a decline of 0.01 per cent and 0.02 per cent from the data of 0.12 per cent in 2015, and 0.13 per cent in 2016,” NEITI disclosed.