Nigeria’s solid minerals sector recorded significant growth in 2025, with export earnings rising to N354 billion, reflecting a sharp increase from the N117.29 billion recorded in 2023.
The latest figures also show that revenue generated for the Federation Account exceeded N70 billion in 2025, compared to N16 billion two years earlier.
The Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the Solid Minerals Development Fund (SMDF), Fatima Shinkafi, disclosed the figures while delivering a lecture at the University of Lagos.
She attributed the improved performance to ongoing reforms introduced by the Federal Government to increase the contribution of the mining sector to Nigeria’s economy.
According to Shinkafi, despite Nigeria’s vast mineral resources—including gold, lithium, iron ore, coal, bitumen, barite and gemstones—the sector remains largely underdeveloped and currently contributes less than one per cent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product.
She explained that the government’s target is to raise the sector’s contribution to three per cent of GDP by 2030 through a series of reforms aimed at attracting investment and improving regulation.
The reforms include plans to establish the Nigerian Solid Minerals Corporation, strengthen geological data, formalise artisanal mining, tackle illegal mining, revoke inactive mining licences and encourage local processing of mineral resources.
Shinkafi noted that although solid minerals accounted for only about 0.4 per cent of Nigeria’s total exports in 2025, the sector’s performance has continued to improve due to better governance and policy implementation.
She also revealed that the mining sector recorded 33.5 per cent real growth in 2025, significantly outperforming Nigeria’s overall economic growth rate.
According to her, reforms introduced since 2023 have attracted about 2.6 billion dollars in new investment commitments, including a 1.3-billion-dollar alumina refinery project, described as the largest mining investment in the country’s history.
The Federal Government is aiming to expand the solid minerals sector to an estimated N30 trillion by 2030, as part of efforts to diversify Nigeria’s economy beyond oil.
