Nigeria\u2019s solid minerals sector, driven by the Bola Tinubu administration\u2019s new policy of local value addition and a tightened licensing regime, attracted over $800 million in processing projects last year.
The sector also generated over N38 billion in revenue in 2024, up from just N6 billion the previous year, despite receiving only 18 per cent of its \u20a629 billion budgeted allocation.
The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake, revealed this during a feature interview for an upcoming State House documentary marking President Tinubu\u2019s second anniversary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alake said the sector has witnessed an increase in investor interest buoyed by the administration\u2019s mining sector reforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He listed the $600 million lithium processing plant near the Kaduna-Niger border, to be commissioned this quarter, the $200 million lithium refinery on the outskirts of Abuja, nearing completion, and two additional processing plants in Nasarawa, slated for commissioning before Q3 2025.
\u201cThese investments follow the administration\u2019s insistence that no miner gets a license without a clear local processing plant. The days of exporting raw minerals from pit to port are over.
\u201cWhen we resumed, the entire sector generated \u20a66 billion annually. By the end of 2024, we hit \u20a638 billion. And this was with just 18 per cent of our \u20a629 billion budgetary allocation released. It shows how effective our policy framework has been,\u201d Dr Alake stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the Minister, in the first quarter of 2025 alone, two regulatory agencies\u2014the Mining Cadastral Office (MCO) and the Mines Inspectorate\u2014have already recorded \u20a66.9 billion and \u20a67 billion in revenue, respectively.
The Minister projected this year to be a record-breaking one for the sector, adding that the current budget allocated \u20a61 trillion for mineral exploration, targeted at generating internationally certified geological data.
\u201cExploration is key. When we came in, Nigeria had spent just $2 million on exploration, compared to $40 million in Sierra Leone, $148 million in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire, and over $300 million in South Africa. No serious investor will touch your sector without credible data,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are now focused on turning our mineral wealth into domestic economic value\u2014jobs, technology, and manufacturing,\u201d he said.
As part of its seven-point agenda, the Minister said he has taken aggressive steps to curb illegal mining and formalise artisanal activity.
He noted that over 300 illegal miners were arrested last year, 150 prosecutions are ongoing, and nine convictions have been secured, including foreign nationals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nigeria\u2019s solid minerals sector, driven by the Bola Tinubu administration\u2019s new policy of local value addition and a tightened licensing regime, attracted over $800 million in processing projects last year. The sector also generated over N38 billion in revenue in 2024, up from just N6 billion the previous year, despite receiving only 18 per cent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":13837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Alake-celebrate-Tinubu-e1743256137835.jpg.jpeg?fit=650%2C433&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13838"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13839,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13838\/revisions\/13839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}