THE Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development, Homourable Abubakar Bwari, on Monday, disclosed that over N8 billion were generated in the past three years by the ministry.
He made this disclosure in Abuja while presenting the account of stewardship of the ministry since assumption of office.
According to him, “As at 2015, the contribution from royalties to the economy was just around 700 million but when we took over and started some reforms, we generated about 2.209 billion. This contribution is just from royalties, taxes and other charges are done by the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS).
“Overall, the revenue generated by the ministry from royalties and fees has improved from N2.08 billion in 2015 to N3.92 billion in 2017 and N2.97 billion as at October 2018.
“We had a NEITI report and you will know we have been able to make a significant contribution to the economy and indeed states are already enjoying the 13 per cent variation from the mining sector, that has never happened before. We can make more revenue for our country if we can because there are a lot of gaps and leakages and if we can bridge that gap, a lot would help the economy,” he stated.
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Honourable Bwari said within the period under review, the Mining Cadastre Office (MCO) realised the sum of N5.2 billion as revenue generated through processing and other licensing fees.
The minister, however, said the lingering issue of evading payment of royalties or false declarations has been dealt with, as all mineral exports would henceforth be inspected by government-appointed independent pre-shipment inspection agents, who shall also render quantity and quality control services and monitor pricing.
He addressed lapses in the mineral exports, explaining that records from the Nigeria Custom Services (NCS), indicated that the mining sector had a total of 2,670 exports from 2013 to 2017, whilst royalties were paid for only 56 within the period.
He said: “Export documentation was cumbersome and the process of mineral exports took 46 days to complete. This, we discovered was occasioned by the lack of a distinct procedure for conducting mineral exports.”