Nigeria earned N69.47bn from the solid minerals sector in 2018, the country’s highest earnings from the industry in 12 years, an audit report released on Sunday by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative stated.
According to the report, the figure showed an increase of N16.71bn, representing 31.67 per cent over the 2017 revenue of N52.76bn.
The N69.47bn earnings also accounted for 16.69 per cent of the total revenue of N416.3bn that accrued to the sector from 2007 to 2018.
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.
A breakdown of the receipts showed that taxes to the Federal Inland Revenue Service accounted for N65.69bn, representing 94.56 per cent of the total.
Fees and royalties paid to the Mines Inspectorate Department and Mining Cadastre Office accounted for N2.21bn (3.18 per cent) and N1.57bn (2.26 per cent) respectively.
The report stated, “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.”
NEITI stated that the figures showed that there had been a remarkable increase in revenues accruing to the federation from the solid minerals sector over the years.