The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) has commenced a nationwide monitoring exercise on royalty collections and activities of miners in the solid mineral sector in Nigeria.
The leader of the team to Kogi State and representative of RMAFC Chairman, Honourable Abdullazeez Idris King, said the move was part of the drive to harness the vast revenue potentials in the solid minerals and mining sector of the economy.
He noted that the ongoing interactive dialogue meeting with stakeholders in the mining sector in Kogi State and officials of the government was in line with the phase two of the nationwide monitoring of revenue collections and the activities of miners at the state and local government councils.
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The strategic meeting which commences at Kogi State Government House in Lokoja was flagged off by the Deputy Governor of the state, Chief Edward Onoja who represented the Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello.
King who is a Federal Commissioner from the commission noted that pursuant to the mandate of the revenue mobilizations allocation and fiscal commission, they had earlier in 2016 conducted a nationwide exercise in collaboration with the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development along with other key stakeholders to access the challenges hindering optimum revenue collection from the sector.
“As a follow up on the 2016 exercise, the commission is again conducting another exercise to dialogue with stakeholders on the finding of the 2016 exercise with the bid to come up with recommendations and solutions to the observed challenges
“The ongoing exercise is to enable the commission to follow up, verify and reconcile, revenue collections in the mining sector,” he said.
He further disclosed that the second phase of the meeting with strategic stakeholders currently going on in Kogi State is aimed at robust dialogue on the findings made in the first phase of the nationwide exercise to develop the nationwide Monitoring Exercise on Royalty Collections and Activities of Miners in the Solid Minerals Sector-phase two.
His words: “The meeting would culminate in the visitation to selected mining companies head office to verify and reconcile the established liabilities in respect of royalty and annual surface fees and any other as reported by NEITI, as well as to obtain if any Demands Notice issued by the FMO/MCO along with evidence of payment in respect of the aforementioned revenue elements.”
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