The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, has disclosed that solid minerals exporters have failed to remit about N17bn in royalties to the coffers of the government.
According to him, only exporters only paid royalties for 56 minerals with valid permits between January 2013 and June 2017 while actual minerals exported during the period was 2,670.
Adegbite made this known while speaking at the stakeholders’ consultative forum on the draft mineral export guidelines procedure and documentation requirements on Monday.
“Unpaid royalties amounted to N17,120,784,902.00, which are still outstanding to the federation government,” he said.
He said the fraud in the industry is ensuring there is no reasonable earnings from the sector by the government.
“Local prices are high because most of the exports are carried out for money laundering purposes, where profit margins are not the necessary incentives,” he added.
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The minister said the implementation of the guidelines would go a long way to bringing sanity to the solid mineral extractive industry, and further informed direct investors’ decision.
The guidelines are in five segments with 11 steps, which include: Documentation and source; pre-shipment inspection; exit point document; shipment; and sanctions.
The proposed document, according to Adegbite, will reduce the usual time for an export cycle from an uncertain current timeframe to 26 working days.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, in her keynote address said the guidelines will reduce revenue leakages and remove undue bottlenecks experienced in the process of transactions by both exporters of minerals and regulators.
