Govt Earned N43.2bn From Solid Minerals in 2016 — NEITI

• Govt Earned N43.2bn From Solid Minerals in 2016 — NEITI

The solid minerals sector contributed N43.22bn to government coffers in 2016, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative announced on Tuesday.

In its 2016 audit report of the solid minerals sector released in Abuja on Tuesday, NEITI stated that taxes collected by the Federal Inland Revenue Service accounted for N40.38bn or 93.43 per cent, while fees collected by the Mining Cadastral Office stood at N1.15bn or 2.66 per cent.

The Mining Inspectorate Department recorded N1.64bn as royalty payments, an increase of 30.15 per cent over the N1.27bn reported as royalty payments in 2015.

The audit 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 tonnes valued at N34.09bn, representing 33 per cent increase on the N25.56bn reported in 2015.

However, tax collection and payment of other fees for 2016 reduced by 32 per cent when compared to the figure of N63.98bn 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 N3m and above were considered for reconciliation.

The companies that met this threshold accounted for 86.87 per cent of the total royalties paid.

On state-by-state minerals production, Ogun State contributed 33.49 per cent to the total production to top the table, followed by Kogi State with a contribution of 19.7 per cent, while FCT came third with 6.2 per cent.