The solid minerals sector contributed a total sum of N43.22billion to government coffers in 2016, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) said in a report on Tuesday.
A breakdown of the figures showed that taxes collected by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) accounted for N40.38 billion or 93.43 percent of the total revenue, while fees collected by the Mining Cadastral Office stood at N1.15 billion or 2.66 percent.
The Mining Inspectorate Department (MID) recorded N1.64 billion as royalty payments, an increase of 30.15 percent over the N1.27 billion reported as royalty payments in 2015.
The amounts are some of the highlights of the 2016 audit report of the solid minerals sector released in Abuja on Tuesday by NEITI.
The audit conducted under the EITI principles and standard reconciled payments made by mining companies in terms of taxes, royalty and rents against receipts of such payments by relevant government agencies.
From the report, total minerals production for 2016 was 41.87 million tons valued at N34.09 billion, representing 33 percent increase on the N25.56 billion reported in 2015.
However, tax collection and payment of other fees for 2016 reduced by 32 percent when compared to the figure of N63.98 billion for 2015.
The report further disclosed that while 651 extractive companies made royalty payments in 2016, only 56 companies that met the materiality threshold of N3million and above were considered for reconciliation. The companies that met this threshold accounted for 86.87 percent of the total royalties paid.
On state-by-state minerals production, Ogun State contributed 33.49 percent to the total production to top the table, followed by Kogi State with a contribution of 19.7 percent, while FCT came third with 6.20 percent.
From the report, minerals production by companies shows that three companies – Dangote Cement Plc, West African Portland Cement Plc, and United Cement Company of Nigeria Limited (UNICEM) contributed 70 percent of total production in 2016. This shows that the cement sub-sector is still dominant in solid minerals production activities.
Further analysis of production by minerals types shows that limestone was the most produced mineral and accounted for 49.35 percent of the total solid minerals production in 2016, followed by granite with 31.32 percent. The least contributions were made by gypsum, iron, talc and amethyst with 0.1 percent each.
The report also revealed that the solid minerals sector’s contribution to exports in 2016 stood at ₦11.16 billion, representing 3.38 percent of the N330.01 billion for non-oil exports and 0.13 percent of total export of ₦8.53trillion.
From the report, China was a major destination of Nigeria’s solid minerals in 2016, accounting for 53.63 percent, followed by Spain and India which accounted for 26.48 percent and 8.90 percent respectively.
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