Solid Minerals Exports Climb to N354bn as Sector Reform Gains Traction

Nigeria’s solid minerals exports climbed to N354 billion in 2025 — roughly triple the N117.29 billion recorded in 2023 — extending a steep growth run for a sector long overshadowed by oil.

Revenue flowing to the Federation Account told an even sharper story, rising past N70 billion, a 337.5 per cent increase on the N16 billion recorded in 2023. Exports for the first nine months of 2024 stood at N199.6 billion, with the full year estimated above N266 billion before 2025’s jump.

Disclosing the figures at the University of Lagos, the Executive Secretary of the Solid Minerals Development Fund, Hajiya Fatima Shinkafi, credited reforms under the Federal Government’s plan to grow the sector’s GDP contribution from under one per cent today to three per cent by 2030.

The headroom is enormous. Nigeria holds more than 44 commercially viable minerals — gold, lithium, iron ore, coal, bitumen, barite, gemstones — across over 500 locations, yet solid minerals still account for only about 0.4 per cent of total exports, versus nearly five per cent at independence.

The reform agenda launched in September 2023 centres on establishing the Nigerian Solid Minerals Corporation, attracting private investment and strengthening geoscience data — the building blocks for turning mineral wealth into a genuine second export engine.

Source: Vanguard