Economy
Mining: FG Hires 100 Experts to Boost Earnings
By Dipo Olowookere
No fewer than 100 revenue consultants have been engaged by the Federal Government to help boost earnings from the mining sector of the country’s economy.
The experts are expected to help the government block leakages in the revenue accrued from the industry, which is still largely untapped in the country.
Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mr Kayode Fayemi, explained that the consultants would be deployed to the six geo-political zones of Nigeria in the coming week are to examine financial and production records of companies involved in mining activities in the last six years.
After this, they will determine whether appropriate royalties were remitted to government by these firms.
Mr Fayemi, speaking at the three-day induction and training for the Revenue Consultants in Abuja on Monday, noted that the main target of the ministry was to ensure that the Federation Account gets its fair due in royalties and taxes.
According to the Minister, the project, tagged ‘Revenue Optimization and Verification Project,’ would assist in blocking leakages in the mining sector, thereby positioning the sector to achieve its set agenda of contributing significantly to the GDP.
The Minister noted that the consultants, who have already been grouped into all the 36 states in the six geopolitical zones of the country, are to commence work after the training programme.
He said, “Our expectation of this project is that the Ministry would emerge as a lead revenue agency for the Federal Government of Nigeria, in line with the growth projections of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), which recognizes the mining sector as one of Nigeria’s most promising growth sectors, and acknowledges that its contribution to GDP doubled from N52 billion in 2010 to N103 billion in 2015.
“The ERGP further projects that revenue the mining sector would grow from N103 billion (2015) to N141 billion (2020) at an average annual growth rate of 8.54 per cent (2017-2020).”
Mr Fayemi said he was optimistic that the ministry would surpass these targets, as all stakeholders work collaboratively to ensure the success of the R.O.V. Project, resulting in improved levels of voluntary compliance of operators.
The Minister admitted that leakages in government revenue was a big challenge in the mining sector, a development, which he said the ministry was determined to redress with the ROV Project, following its approval by the National Economic Council (NEC).
He said, “The R.O.V Project is an initiative of our ministry, pursuant of one of our core mandates, which is to significantly increase the contribution of the Mining Sector to our sovereign revenue.
“Indeed, leakages in government revenue remain a big challenge in the sector, which we are working collaboratively with other government entities and sector stakeholders to fix. We have given considerable thought to this challenge and come up with a number of strategies to tackle it, one of which we are witnessing its launch today.
“I am therefore pleased to announce that following the approval of the National Economic Council (NEC), we are today inaugurating a new model of revenue generation and collection in the mining sector. This entails the engagement of Professional Revenue Consultants who would work with our ministry’s mining officers to identify revenue leakages in the system.
“The Revenue Optimization and Verification Project essentially seeks to confirm the adequacy of royalties’ remittances made by the various operators in the mining industry. They are mandated to collect and analyse data from 2012 – 2017 in the course of their work, thus giving us the opportunity to demand and receive accruals due to government from the referenced period.
“It would also ensure compliance of all operators to paying the correct amount in royalties to the government coffers going forward.”
The Minister said the exercise will be carried out in line with the provisions of Section 17 of the Nigeria Mineral and Mining Act of 2007 which empowers the Mining Inspectorate Division of the Ministry to supervise and enforce compliance of laws and also section 43 of the Nigeria Mineral and Mining Act of 2007 which mandates mining operators to keep and supply records upon request by the ministry.
Speaking further, the Minister who was represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr Muazu Abdullahi, said the project was not designed to witch hunt anybody, even as he warned the consultants to avoid any shady deals.
“This is not a witch hunting initiative, but the exercise of the statutory responsibility of the Ministry to determine the adequacy of remittances made by the various operators in the mining industry,” he said.
Mr Fayemi added that, “The image and reputation of the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, and indeed the entire Federal Government of Nigeria is key during this Revenue Optimization and Verification Project; therefore, we charge all consultants to stand for what this government stands for by avoiding any form of compromise, illegality and unprofessional conduct.
The Project Coordinator, Mr Makinde Araoye, said the projects is at no cost to the Ministry as the National Economic Council approval stated that consultants and the ministry take a certain percentage of whatever is recovered.
“NEC approved 15 per cent as cost of collection, out of the 15 per cent. The consultant will be paid a certain percentage of what they recover, the lead consultant will be paid a certain percentage of what they recover and the Ministry will also retain certain percentage as cost of collection”, he added.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange recorded a 0.16 per cent decline on Tuesday, January 21, extending its loss this week to two.
This further depleted the market capitalisation of the alternative stock exchange by N1.65 billion at the close of transactions to N1.071 trillion from the N1.073 trillion it closed in the preceding session.
In the same vein, the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) slid by 4.79 points to wrap the session at 3,100.33 points compared with 3,105.12 points recorded in the previous session.
The bourse ended with two price losers yesterday led by Geo Fluids Plc, which gave up 32 Kobo to trade at N4.38 per share versus Monday’s closing price of N4.70 per share and FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc, which depreciated by 15 Kobo to close at N39.50 per unit compared with the previous day’s N39.65 per unit.
On the second trading day of the week, the number of deal carried out slightly went up by 8.3 per cent to 13 deals from the 12 deals executed at the previous trading session.
Also, the value of transactions increased by 97.2 per cent to N4.5 million from the N2.5 million recorded a day earlier, while the volume of securities traded in the session declined by 71.6 per cent to 183,780 units from the 767,610 units recorded on Monday.
FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc remained the most traded equity by value (year-to-date) with 4.1 million units worth N162.9 million, followed by Geo-Fluids Plc with 9.1 million units valued at N44.0 million, and 11 Plc with 55,358 sold for N14.5 million.
Also, Industrial and General Insurance (IGI) Plc closed the day as the most active stock by volume (year-to-date) with 25.3 million units worth N5.9 million, trailed by Geo-Fluids Plc with 9.1 million units sold for N44.0 million, and FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc with 4.1 million units valued at N162.9 million.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Pressure further mounted on the Nigerian Naira in the different segments of the foreign exchange market on Tuesday, making its value to shrink against the United States Dollar at the close of business.
In the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM), the domestic currency crashed against its American counterpart during the session by 0.18 per cent or N2.73 to settle at N1,552.78/$1, in contrast to Monday’s closing price of N1,550.05/1.
But against the Pound Sterling and the Euro, the local currency traded flat in the official market yesterday at N1,906.98/£1 and N1,613.48/€1, respectively.
As for the black market segment, the Naira weakened against the Dollar on Tuesday by N5 to sell for N1,670/$1 compared with the preceding day’s value of N1,665/$1.
Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market heaved a sigh of relief during the session as President Donald Trump created a crypto task force dedicated to “developing a comprehensive and clear regulatory framework for crypto assets.”
The task force will be led by Commissioner Hester Peirce, a long-time advocate for the crypto industry, and will work closely with the crypto industry to develop regulations. This is after Mr Gary Gensler, an opponent of crypto, officially stepped down as chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after Mr Trump’s term started.
The task force will also work with Congress, providing “technical assistance” as it crafts crypto regulations.
Solana (SOL) recorded a 9.2 per cent growth to sell at $257.09, Dogecoin (DOGE) rose by 7.6 per cent to $0.36789, Ripple (XRP) added 4.0 per cent to finish at $3.18, and Bitcoin (BTC) increased by 3.7 per cent to $105,515.03.
Further, Binance Coin (BNB) appreciated by 2.8 per cent to close at $699.01, Cardano jumped by 2.1 per cent to trade at $0.9972, Ethereum (ETH) soared by 2.0 per cent to settle at $3,308.21, and Litecoin (LTC) went up by 1.5 per cent to end at $116.72, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) closed flat at $1.00 each.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The price of the Brent crude oil grade went below the $80 mark on Tuesday after it shed 86 cents or 1.1 per cent to trade at $79.29 per barrel after the US President, Mr Donald Trump, signaled the possibility of his country boosting its oil production.
This move raised concerns of higher US output in a market widely expected to be oversupplied this year, with the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures falling by $1.99 or 2.6 per cent during the session to $75.89 per barrel.
On his first day in office, the US President signed an executive order to unleash America’s energy by easing the barriers to oil and gas extraction and production and revoking a series of climate orders by former President Joe Biden.
As pledged in the campaign, the executive order follows the declaration of a national energy emergency.
The declaration includes measures to expedite energy infrastructure delivery, and emergency approvals by agencies “to facilitate the identification, leasing, siting, production, transportation, refining, and generation of domestic energy resources, including, but not limited to, on Federal lands.”
This will likely confirm expectations that the oil market will be oversupplied this year after weak economic activity and energy transition efforts weighed heavily on demand in top-consuming nations the US and China.
President Trump also said he was considering imposing 25 per cent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico from February 1, rather than on his first day in office as promised.
The delay helped ease concerns of an immediate tightening of the market among US refiners, many of which are geared to process the type of crude oil supplied by these countries.
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reiterated on Tuesday its expectations for oil prices to decline both this year and next.
On its part, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) projects robust demand growth in the world both this year and next.
In 2025, OPEC says demand is set to grow by 1.4 million barrels per day leaving its projection unchanged from the December report.
However, losses were also limited after the US president said his administration would “probably” stop buying oil from Venezuela. The U.S. is the second-biggest buyer of Venezuelan oil after China.
Also weighing on prices on Tuesday was the potential end to the shipping disruption in the Red Sea.
Yemen’s Houthis said on Monday they will limit their attacks on commercial vessels to Israel-linked ships provided the Gaza ceasefire is fully implemented.
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