A call has gone out to the federal government not to relent in its commitment to drive investments and increase revenue in the mines and steel sector.
A director with the Price Waterhouse Cooper, Habeeb Jayeola who gave the advice in a telephone chat with The Rock Post commended the current initiatives and policies of government aimed at upscaling the revenue performance of the sector.
“The Nigeria mining industry is in its growing stage, and there are several initiatives that we have seen the federal government put in place to ensure that the industry grows rapidly, which I think are laudable, only if they can be sustained.
“Government should continue to strengthen its commitment in the sector, not minding the long gestation period in mining turnover.
“We have seen the efforts being made to ensure that small scale artisanal miners in the country adapt to the new way of doing business in the sector, definitely, leveraging on government’s support by the miners will help in Increasing the revenue, especially by way of collection,” he said.
He said the 13 per cent derivation being granted states where minerals occur is another step towards increased revenue, adding”as a result of that, state governments are putting in a lot of efforts to ensure that miners in their state are reporting appropriately to the federal government in terms of revenue, knowing that they are going to get their own back”.
According to him, there is a lot of mining interest in Nigeria at the moment, especially foreign interest who looking forward to investing in the sector, and that is a precondition for revenue to increase.
Speaking on the state of Ajaokuta Steel, Jayeola also lauded the initiative of government to get the Russians back to fix the steel mill, saying it was a welcome development.
“So I believe if the effort is sustained plant will become operational soon,” he noted.
As regards the school of thought that believes Ajaokuta will be better managed by private hands, he said “The issue is not whether the plant should remain in government hand or be privatised, but the model or approach that will be adopted to make it work in the interest of the economy for the people to benefit.”
