‘Operators Taking Advantage of Nigeria’s Unregulated Mining Sector’
By Charles Okonji
The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has expressed concerns over the nation’s unregulated mining sector, stating that many operators are carrying out mining activities without remitting royalty to the federal government’s purse.
The Director Technical, NEITI, Dr. Dieter Bassi, said the ministry of mines and steel development’s inability to monitor activities in the nation’s mining industry is worrisome as tracing operators in the industry is a difficult challenge.
He stated this at the public presentation of the 2019 Oil, Gas and Solid Minerals audit reports to Media and Civil Servant Organisations in Lagos.
“We also found out that many companies were operating under different licenses and companies with exploration licenses are not supposed to mine. Many companies have overstretched their exploration licenses and have been mining and it means they are not remitting to the government’s purse,” he added.
The Executive Secretary, NEITI, Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, said Nigeria needs to learn how to manage its natural resources effectively and efficiently in its quest to combat poverty.
According to the NEITI boss, it has conducted twelve cycles of audits in the oil and gas sector covering the periods 1999-2019 and has also conducted the first mineral sector audit from 2007-2010.
He added that NEITI has also conducted two cycles of audits that focus on the allocation, statutory disbursements and utilization of revenues from the federation account to the three tiers of government.
“I am optimistic that if the contents of these reports are reviewed by various stakeholder froups of NEITI and the recommendations implemented by the covered entities concerned, Nigeria’s oil and gas industry will witness massive investments, with revenues from the sector maximized to uplift the standards of living of the citizens,” he said.
The Assistant Director, Oil and Gas, NEITI, Mr. George Abiye delivering the oil and gas report said from the total crude oil lifting of 735.661mmbbls, companies lifted 469.01mmbbls, stressing that the remaining 266.65mmbbls was lifted by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) valued at $US17.441 billion.
He noted that of the $US17.441 billion, $US2.757 billion was sale receivables while the remaining balance of $US14.684 billion was cash receipts from 2019 sales.
He added that in addition to the cash receipts, a total of $US3.518 billion accrued as receipts from sales proceeds from federation equity crude, profit oil and in-kind payments.
“The $US3.518 billion is made up of $US1.249 billion undistributed balance from 2018 and $US2.268 billion prior year receivables. A total of $US18.202 billion was the aggregate cash receipts for 2019,” he said.
