Ministry employs 100 consultants to identify revenue loss

Dr-Kayode-Fayemi-25

Dr. Kayode Fayemi, governor of Ekiti State

Dr. Kayode Fayemi, Minister of Solid Minerals

The Ministry of Mines and Steel Development has engaged no fewer than 100  professional revenue consultants to identify revenue leakages in the sector.

Dr Kayode Fayemi, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development made this known during an official launch of the Revenue Optimisation and Verification Project (ROV) on Monday in Abuja.

The minister was represented by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Dr Abdukadir Muazu.

Fayemi said it became imperative to engage the consultants considering frequent leakages occurring in the sector.

He said the primary functions of the consultants were to collaborate with the mining officers of the sector to curb leakages in the system.

He said the consultants would conduct data gathering, which would assist the ministry in identifying revenue leakages and  provide long term revenue solutions to sustain and improve the revenue yield.

“We carefully selected about 100 consultants who met very stringent conditions, and are being put through extensive training before deployment in the coming days.

“The consultants will add value to the ministry’s efforts and contribute the much-needed technical expertise, while also working on a no-win no-fee basis thus costing us nothing upfront,” he said.

He said they were mandated to collect and analyse data from 2012 to 2017 in the course of their work, thus giving the ministry the opportunity to demand and receive accruals due to government from the referenced period.

“It will also ensure compliance of all operators to paying the correct amount of royalties to the government coffers going forward.”

He said the ROV exercise would be carried out in line with the provisions of Section 17 of the Nigeria Mineral and Mining Act of 2007.

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He charged all consultants to stand for what the government stood for by avoiding any form of compromise, illegality and unprofessional conduct.

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He said with this exercise, the sector would emerge as a lead revenue agency for the Federal Government in line with the growth projections of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).

He said that ERGP further projects that revenue from the mining sector would grow from N103 billion in 2015 to N141 billion in 2020 at an average annual growth rate of 8.54 per cent.

“For us at the ministry, we are optimistic that we will surpass these targets, as all stakeholders work collaboratively to ensure the success of the R.O.V. Project, resulting in improved levels of voluntary compliance of operators.

“Similarly, we expect a corresponding increase in other statutory taxes payable to the government by mining companies such as Companies Income Tax, Value Added Tax among others,’’ he said.

The minister expressed regret that in spite of government’s  efforts, the country was still having economic saboteurs in the sector who wish to undermine efforts of government by failing to render their responsibilities.

He said that leakages in government revenue remained a big challenge in the sector, which the ministry had been working in collaboration with other government entities and sector stakeholders to fix.

Speaking at the event, the Project Coordinator, Mr Makinde Araoye said that the ministry had given the consultants a target to generate N32 billion this year for the sector.

Araoye, who is also the Senior Special Adviser to the Minister on Revenue Mobilisation said the consultants were also given the mandate to regularise informal operators in the sector among others.

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