The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, has announced plans by the Federal Government to establish a new pre-shipment inspection agency for the solid minerals sector as part of ongoing efforts to plug leakages and boost revenue generation.
Alake disclosed this at a pre-event press briefing ahead of the 10th edition of the Nigeria Mining Week, scheduled to be held from October 13 to 15, 2025, in Abuja,
where he explained that the new framework forms part of a broader regulatory and policy initiative aimed at blocking financial leakages and ensuring accountability within the sector.
“As part of the regulatory framework and policy initiatives designed to plug loopholes and leakages in the system, because there are leakages everywhere, not just in solid minerals, we are taking decisive steps to plug them,” Alake said.
According to the minister, the move aligns with President Bola Tinubu’s economic reform agenda to enhance non-oil revenue, strengthen fiscal discipline, and reposition the mining industry as a major contributor to the country’s GDP.
Alake explained that plugging leakages remains one of the most effective short-term measures to increase government revenue without necessarily introducing new taxes.
“Plugging leakages is a shorthand measure of increasing revenue in any economy,” he said. “We did the same in Lagos State when the current president was governor, and the result was remarkable.”
He recalled that when Tinubu assumed office as Lagos State Governor in 1999, the state’s monthly revenue stood at about N600m, barely enough to pay workers’ salaries. Through deliberate reforms and the introduction of digital payroll systems, the administration was able to save N350m in its first month of implementing biometric verification, uncovering thousands of ghost workers and non-existent schools on the government payroll.
Alake said a similar technology-driven approach will be adopted in the solid minerals sector to eliminate inefficiencies, ensure transparent royalty collection, and curb illegal mining exports.
“We are going to adopt technology. There is going to be a new pre-shipment inspection agency specifically for solid minerals. This will ensure that what leaves Nigeria in the name of mineral exports is properly documented, valued, and taxed. We are determined to ensure that every ounce of mineral extracted from Nigerian soil is accounted for. Leakages must stop; that is how we’ll build a sustainable and transparent mining economy,” he added.
The minister, who served as Commissioner for Information and Strategy in Lagos during Tinubu’s tenure, said the success of that model informed his resolve to apply strategic thinking to governance in the mining sector.
He emphasised that the administration would continue to pursue transparency, data-driven reforms, and automation of regulatory processes to close revenue gaps that have persisted for years.
Alake’s announcement comes amid ongoing reforms to reposition the solid minerals sector as a key driver of Nigeria’s economic diversification and job creation agenda.
Nigeria’s solid minerals sector, which boasts over 44 commercially viable mineral resources, has been plagued by issues of illegal mining, weak regulatory oversight, and loss of export revenue.
