- The Nigerian Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) reports that Nigeria earned only $1.4 billion from the solid minerals sector over a span of 13 years.
- NEITI has launched a strategic plan for 2022-2026 aimed at promoting investments, transparency, and capacity building in the solid minerals sector.
- Dr. Ogbonnaya Orji, the Executive Secretary of NEITI, believes that the solid minerals sector has been neglected for too long and has the potential to contribute over 60% to Nigeria’s GDP if properly invested in.
The Nigerian Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has said that Nigeria made only $1.4 billion from solid minerals in 13 years. Dr. Ogbonnaya Orji, the Executive Secretary of NEITI said this during his speech at the launch of the initiative’s 2022 to 2026 Strategic Plan in Abuja earlier this week.
The strategic plan is a direct response to the issues of the global energy transition, contract transparency, and government partnerships. Under the strategic plan there are three major objectives which are:
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· Enhancing extractive sector governance reforms through policy research, strategic stakeholder engagement, communication and inter-agency collaboration.
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· Maintaining extractive reporting and relevance by prioritizing national and international priorities.
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· Achieving operational excellence in implementing the NEITI mandate through professionalism, innovation, use of technology, resource management and capacity building.
According to Dr. Orji, the solid minerals sector has a huge potential and could become an important contributor to Nigeria’s GDP. Dr. Orji said:
- “Our projection is that if the solid mineral sector is thrown open for investment, that it has the potential to contribute over 60% to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP). At 60% to Nigeria’s GDP would mean outperforming oil.”
This is our target. We have done an extensive scoping study and seen the potential of the solid minerals sector.