NEITI Report Uncovers Revenue Losses in Nigeria's Mining Sector

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has released a report highlighting the reasons behind the government's revenue losses in the mining sector. The report identifies weak governance structures, illegal mining activities, and poor transparency as critical factors contributing to massive revenue leakage.

It emphasizes that illicit financial flows are driven by illegal extraction, mispricing, smuggling, and money laundering. The report notes that these issues are deeply rooted in the governance and regulatory framework, with persistent challenges such as weak regulatory capacity, political interference, and poor coordination among government agencies.

It also highlights the dominance of foreign buyers in the mining market, which encourages valuation manipulation and capital flight. Furthermore, the report points out that high levels of informal and small-scale mining operations complicate monitoring and taxation efforts.

The lack of a robust beneficial ownership framework and reliance on manual record-keeping exacerbate the transparency issues, allowing for corruption and regulatory capture.