Waziri Adio, executive secretary, Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), said solid minerals sector contributed only 0.13 percent to the country’s gross Domestic Product (GDP), in 2013.
The NEITI boss made this known while briefing the Senate on the agency’s 2013 audit report on the oil and gas and solid minerals sectors at plenary session in Abuja on Wednesday.
Adio said the contribution of the sector to national development was poor compared to what obtained in the 60s, saying the sector contributed only 0.09 percent to total export in 2013.
He said while progress was made in 2013 compared with 2012, which contributed only 0.02 percent to total export, more needed to be done in the sector.
“In 2013, the federation made N33.8 billion from the solid minerals sector. This was 37 percent increase in what the country made in 2012,” adding that “91 percent of the total production for 2013 came from limestone, granite and laterite.”
He added that 5.8 percent of the production for that year came from sand, which means the only portion remaining is 3 percent, which was from gold and others.
“The revenue from cement companies alone constituted 88 per cent of the payment for 2013,” he said, and expressed concern that in spite of calls for diversification of the economy, the numerous potentials of that sector had not been fully optimised.
He said the audit report exposed the inaccuracy of production data, lack of clarity on legal and tax regimes, as well as non-transfer of revenue to states where solid minerals were extracted.
“The sector lack depth and it is dominated by artisanal miners. Major operators are not even the companies involved in real minerals extraction. They are people doing cement, construction and they just mine some resources as by-products of the job that they do.
“The enormous capacity of that sector for jobs, for growth, for development are not taken full advantage of. The issue here is that the sector needs to grow both vertically and horizontally for us to be able to take full advantage of what is going on there.
“In 2013, revenue of N2 billion that should have been allocated to states on the basis of derivation is still sitting somewhere,” he said.
