By Nneka Nwogwugwu
A new report by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) for the year 2020 has revealed that over two thousand companies operating in Nigeria’s solid minerals industry are indebted to the Federal Government to the tune of over N2.76 billion.
In a statement by Mrs. Obiageli Onuorah, NEITI’s Deputy Director/Head, Communications and Advocacy, the companies’ liabilities resulted from failure on the part of 2,119 companies to pay statutory annual service fees for respective mineral titles.
The report stated that 6,010 existing solid mineral titles were valid as of December 31, 2020, while 7,605 mining titles were issued in the industry in the past five years.
Presenting the report before its multi-stakeholders in Abuja, the Executive Secretary of NEITI, Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, stressed that at this time that the government is in a desperate search for revenue to finance the widening budget deficits, NEITI is determined to use its reports to disclose potential revenue recoveries that are awaiting immediate action by the relevant government agencies.
“It is of interest to NEITI that every kobo counts to reduce government financial burden, and our reports will continue to provide useful information and data on who owes what in the oil, gas and mining sector. This is another impact that our reports will pursue in line with our mandate”, Dr. Orji declared.
He announced that the total revenue contributions from the sector in 2020 rose to N128.27 billion, an increase of over 54% from the N74.85 billion recorded in 2019 despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
Highlights of the NEITI report showed that the sum of N8.89 billion was shared to the federating units as solid minerals revenue in 2020. Breakdown of the figure shows that the Federal Government received N4.07 billion (45.83%), states and local governments received N2.07 billion and N1.59 billion (23.25%; 17.92%), respectively, while N1.16 billion (13%) was recorded as derivation share.
