The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) has stressed the need for the development of the solid mineral sector to boost revenue generation to the federation’s account.
Mr Elias Mbam, Chairman of the commission, made this assertion in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
According to him, every state in the country has one form of mineral resources or the other that can be used to generate revenue.
“We are carrying out an advocacy campaign to state and local governments to make use of what is available to us.
“Basically, every state has one form of mineral or the other,’’ Mbam said.
He said the country has solid mineral potentials that can be developed to generate more money than from oil and gas.
“We recommend that the money realized from natural resources sometimes should be used to develop the solid mineral sector because it is vital to our social-economic development.’’
He said that diversifying the economy would help to generate more revenue and that solid mineral was the commission’s major area of diversification.
He explained that solid mineral had started contributing to the federation account since his first tenure in office and money generated from the sector has been shared accordingly.
The chairman said that any state that generates revenue through solid mineral would get 13 per cent of the revenue.
He added that Ogun got the highest revenue because it generated the highest revenue from solid mineral.
“The 13 per cent derivation was also applied in the sharing.
“It is not exclusive to oil and gas alone but for any natural activities that generate money to the federation account,’’ he said.
Mbam said that all the states have the potential to generate revenue from solid mineral.
He, therefore, encouraged them to key in and develop solid minerals in their areas.
The chairman said lots of revenue is lost either by theft or collusion, saying that the commission will close all leakages so as to enhance the revenue generated.
He said that the commission was highly committed to President Muhammadu Buhari’s agenda of taking 100 million Nigerians out of poverty.
Mbam added that one of the ways to actualize this was by diversification; development of the agricultural sector and solid mineral.
