Nigeria’s mineral revenue surges as digital reforms redefine sector's trajectory

The Nigerian government credits its recent revenue hike in the solid minerals sector to the strategic implementation of digital systems, signalling a transformative shift towards transparency and efficiency under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.

The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, said the mining sector’s recent gains were the direct result of digital reforms introduced by the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration over the past two an...

d a half years, an assertion he made while inaugurating the OneGov Enterprise Content Management System (ECMS) at the Mining Cadastre Office (MCO) in Abuja.

Describing the launch as “a monumental step that reflects the new colours of success, progress, and efficiency in Nigeria’s solid minerals sector,” Alake said digitisation has driven “unprecedented revenue, transparency, operational efficiency,” and growing international recognition for the sector. According to the original report, he told the ceremony: “What the MCO has achieved today is symptomatic of the entire sector. We have made strident strides across every part of the solid minerals’ ecosystem.”

The minister and MCO officials pointed to sharp increases in revenue since the reforms. Alake said government receipts from the sector rose from N28 billion in 2024 to “over N50 billion in 2025,” a leap he credited to digitisation, stricter policy enforcement and improved licensing processes. The MCO’s director-general, Obadiah Simon Nkom, described the ECMS rollout as historic, saying at the event: “This milestone is not just for the ministry or the mining sector. It is a milestone for the entire country.” He also told the audience that MCO revenue moved from N6.17 billion in 2023 to N12 billion in 2024 and had “already surpassed N30 billion in 2025,” attributing progress to ministerial support, compliance-driven digitisation and administrative reform.

Other contemporaneous accounts provide additional detail and, in some instances, alternate breakdowns of the gains. Agency statements and press coverage earlier in 2025 said the MCO recorded revenue in excess of ₦6.95 billion in the first quarter of 2025, a performance the MCO attributed to lower litigation, the enforcement of a fully digitised licensing platform (EMC+) and the seven-point reform agenda championed by the ministry. Government statements presented at the ECMS launch framed the OneGov platform as a sovereign, secure backbone intended to eliminate paperwork, strengthen document security and streamline workflows across agencies.

The new system was developed and deployed with technical support from Galaxy Backbone Limited; the company’s managing director, Gana Nsuba, praised the MCO for “raising the bar” and aligning with the Federal Government’s OneGov Cloud agenda. The minister, while commending Galaxy Backbone, urged the company to guarantee uninterrupted internet connectivity so the system’s gains would not be undermined by network outages.

Permanent Secretary Faruk Yusuf Yabo framed the ECMS as more than automation, calling it “a secure, intelligent digital backbone capable of transforming governance” and stressing that its adoption is meant to make officials “work smarter, faster, and more securely, delivering greater value to citizens and investors.” The MCO’s leadership, industry statements and multiple media accounts consistently emphasised that digitisation reduced administrative bottlenecks, accelerated service delivery and helped restore investor confidence.

Taken together, the statements and contemporaneous reporting portray a sector in transition: policy changes, an enforced digital licensing channel and new enterprise systems have coincided with markedly higher reported revenues. At the same time, published accounts show variation in the precise timing and scale of those gains , for example, quarterly revenue figures and the agency-level totals cited by the MCO differ from aggregated ministry-wide totals reported at the launch , underscoring that while the direction of change is clear, exact fiscal comparisons will benefit from consolidated, audited figures published by the ministry or treasury.

For now, the ministry is positioning the OneGov ECMS rollout at the MCO as a model for replication across its agencies, arguing that digital governance, combined with stronger oversight and compliance measures, can be the engine of further growth and transparency in Nigeria’s solid minerals sector.

Source: Noah Wire Services