Solid minerals
Nigeria’s solid minerals sector provides a vivid example of some of the successes recorded so far in the fundamental economic reforms being implemented by the President Bola Tinubu administration since
- We can enhance revenue from the sector by adding value before exporting the products
Nigeria’s solid minerals sector provides a vivid example of some of the successes recorded so far in the fundamental economic reforms being implemented by the President Bola Tinubu administration since May 2023.
Despite the perhaps inevitable pains associated with such far-reaching economic adjustments, such as the removal of fuel subsidy and merger of the hitherto parallel exchange rate markets, there has been a resultant substantial increase in revenues to the three tiers of government.
In the solid minerals sector, for instance, revenues to government rose from N16 billion in 2023 to N38 billion in 2024. This strong upward trajectory in revenue performance continued in the first 11 months of 2025 with total earnings of about N68.1 billion. This reflects the depths of Nigeria’s solid minerals endowment and the efficacy of ongoing exertions to strengthen the sector.
Yet, the current scenario in the sector, rather than encouraging a spirit of self-satisfaction that may breed complacency, is more an indication of much greater achievements that can be recorded if efforts continue relentlessly to tap Nigeria’s only modestly tapped solid minerals potential.
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According to a report by the Sea Empowerment and Research Centre, (SEREC), released last month, the country loses between $5 billion to $8 billion annually due to poor export documentation, trade invoicing malpractices, misclassification and under-valuation of solid minerals.
For a country facing high poverty level, huge infrastructure deficits, underperforming agriculture and manufacturing sectors, inadequate social services bordering on virtual collapse in education and health, and insecurity, this level of loss of potential foreign exchange earnings is inexcusable and must be decisively tackled.
The SEREC report attributes this humongous revenue loss in the solid minerals sector to the dependence on export of raw materials at low value rather than processed goods to which substantial value has been added.
This means loss of potential opportunities estimated at between $15 billion and $20 billion. Thus, Nigeria is unable to maximally benefit from her rich deposits of diverse solid minerals, including iron ore, gypsum, limestone, gold, bitumen, and lithium, to name a few.
But nurturing a vigorous, vibrant and flourishing solid minerals sector is a necessary condition for fundamentally reducing the over-dependence on the often unpredictable petroleum revenues that have been a major problem with economic management in post-colonial Nigeria.
Towards this end, the Tinubu administration must continue to deepen the reforms in the solid minerals sector. These reforms include strengthening of regulatory enforcement through the establishment of Mining Marshalls in 2024, organising artisanal miners into formal, taxable structures, and enhanced efficiency in the collection of royalties and licenses.
The Ministry of Solid Minerals Development should urgently prioritise ensuring qualitative value addition to solid minerals raw materials before export, to increase competitiveness and revenue potential.
The SEREC report indicates that poor management of Nigeria’s export structures and processes does not affect only the solid minerals sector but negatively impacts export performance in diverse spheres of the national economy.
It identifies such structural gaps as poor monitoring of export volumes and valuation, and ineffective enforcement of international best practices, as mitigating against export value maximisation.
It stresses in particular pervasive operational inefficiencies within Nigeria’s ports manifesting, for instance, in “fragmented digital systems across port, customs and shipping operations, lack of real-time cargo visibility and persistent reliance on manual processes”.
It further describes the country’s ports as “dual-purpose corridors that facilitate the export of raw resources and the import of refined goods, a pattern that continues to reinforce trade imbalances, industrial stagnation and rising cost of living”.
Deepening and accelerating ongoing port reforms as well as overhauling, modernising and rejuvenating all structures and agencies critical to export processes and management in Nigeria must be a cardinal feature of the current administration’s economic reforms.
