Nigeria solid minerals earnings grow by 21% to N53bn

^Solid minerals found in Nigeria.

Ike Amos

Abuja — The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), yesterday, disclosed that Nigeria’s earnings from the solid minerals sector appreciated by 21 per cent to N52.75 billion in 2017, from N43.22 billion recorded in 2016.

NEITI, in a statement on the release of its 2017 Solid Minerals Report in Abuja, noted 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.

In the statement signed by its Director of Communications and Advocacy, Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, NEITI explained that 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.”

NEITI also bemoaned 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 transparency watchdog, 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.

It said, “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.”

On the solid mineral sector’s contribution to exports, NEITI stated that about 16.34 million metric tons of minerals valued at $29.90 million was exported in 2017, adding that Nigeria’s total solid minerals export was about N13.60 trillion with solid minerals contributing N77.23billion or 0.57 per cent of total export in 2017.

It said, “The trend analysis shows that in 2015, solid minerals export was N1.94 billion. This witnessed a geometric leap to N11.16 billion in 2016 and an equally impressive figure of N77.23 billion in 2017. This is an indication that the solid minerals sector is steadily contributing to the Federation’s export earnings but requires greater government attention.”

NEITI disclosed that China emerged the major destination of Nigeria’s export during the year under review, accounting for 68 per cent of the total export value during the year, while other leading export destinations were Malaysia, Vietnam and India.

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.

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.

On state-by-state contribution, NEITI said, “the report highlighted that Ogun State produced the highest quantity of minerals in terms of both volume and value. The state accounted for over one-third of total production quantity and 23 per cent of the total minerals production value.

“The contributions by Ogun and Kogi states put together accounted for over half of the total production quantity. A further analysis showed that the two states led in limestone as major minerals produced in the states. However, in terms of production value, Ogun, FCT and Kogi states accounted for 23 per cent, 20 per cent and 18 per cent respectively.”