The Federal Government, through the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, has increased the fees and rates paid by mining firms.
Minister of Solid Minerals Development Dele Alake announced the price rise during a news conference held at the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja on Thursday.
He disclosed that the administration increased a total of 286 rate regimes ranging from 50% to 100%, with compliance beginning immediately.
He also warned that defaulters will have their licenses withdrawn.
The review, according to the minister, was required because operators were not returning enough money to the government’s coffers.
He said that the increased increase will help the ministry improve the sector’s ease of doing business.
Alake added that relevant stakeholders were involved in deciding the new rates adding that all parties unanimously accepted the increase.
He said, “It is therefore equitable that those who use these services to invest in the mining sector and make profits from it should be on the frontlines of the government’s efforts to recoup rather than pass it to poor Nigerians.
Thus, using the authority granted to me by the Mining and Minerals Act of 2007, I assembled a committee composed of directors general of ministries and directors of departments under the ministry, and I gave them the task of determining new rates to cover the costs of the government’s investment in service infrastructures as well as the anticipated sharp increase in the number of applications that would besiege the regulatory apparatus.
“Today we are taking a significant step in efforts to implement the seven-point agenda to reposition the sector and international competitiveness by announcing a new regime of rates and charges for various services, departments and agencies.
“This is given qualitative measures and technological capacity upgrades implemented in recent times to raise the level of technical efficiency and improve the traffic of transactions and cope with business interest.”
