Nigeria does not lack resources. What it has long lacked is a system for turning resources into broad-based prosperity. For more than five decades, crude oil has dominated the country’s export earnings and public finances, yet the sector employs less than 1 per cent of the workforce and has failed to create enough jobs for a fast-growing population.

This dependence has left the economy dangerously exposed. When oil prices rise, government revenue improves; when they fall, budgets come under pressure, foreign exchange tightens, and development plans are disrupted. Oil has historically accounted for about 80 per cent of Nigeria’s export earnings and a large share of government revenue. But that dominance has also weakened incentives to develop other productive sectors.

The consequences are visible. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria’s 2022 Multidimensional Poverty Index showed that about 133 million people, or 63 per cent of persons living in the country, were multidimensionally poor. The World Bank has also warned that poverty pressures remain severe, despite recent improvements in some macroeconomic indicators. Nigeria is therefore facing a difficult paradox: it can record growth in GDP, reserves or exports without creating enough decent jobs.

That is why solid minerals matter. The issue is not simply that Nigeria needs another source of revenue. It needs a sector that can support industrialisation, create jobs, expand exports, strengthen local manufacturing and reduce the economy’s exposure to oil-price shocks.

At present, solid minerals contribute less than one per cent to Nigeria’s GDP, despite the country’s large resource base. Nigeria is endowed with more than 44 commercially viable minerals across the federation, including limestone in Kogi, Ogun and Ebonyi; gold in Osun, Zamfara, Kebbi and Niger; coal in Enugu; iron ore in Kogi; barite in Benue and Nasarawa; tantalite and columbite in Plateau; and lithium in Nasarawa and Kaduna. These resources are increasingly important as global demand grows for minerals linked to infrastructure, renewable energy, electric vehicles and technology.

It is in this context that Dr Dele Alake, the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, has argued that the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is seeking to reposition the sector as a serious contributor to national development. The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative has also repeatedly noted that mining can help diversify the economy, reduce reliance on oil and gas, save foreign exchange, generate employment and create alternative public revenue streams.

But Nigeria’s challenge is not geology alone. The country’s mineral wealth will not automatically produce development. Without stronger laws, security, transparency, investment discipline and local value addition, solid minerals could repeat the failures of crude oil: extraction without broad prosperity, revenue without accountability, and wealth without development.

To avoid that outcome, the government must urgently focus on five priorities.

The Legal Framework: A National Minerals Development Council

The solid minerals sector must be guided by clear laws, not fragmented administrative decisions. The National Assembly should urgently pass a comprehensive minerals reform law that defines the roles of federal and state actors, protects investors, safeguards host communities and strengthens regulatory coordination.

Within this legal framework, the government should establish a National Minerals Development Council chaired at the Presidency. Its mandate should include coordinating policy across ministries and agencies, supervising a real-time mining cadastre portal, supporting transparent digital licensing and ensuring that Free, Prior and Informed Consent is embedded in law for host communities.

A transparent legal framework would reduce uncertainty, limit political discretion and give both investors and communities greater confidence in the sector.

Securing Critical Minerals

Legal reform will mean little if mining areas remain insecure. The government must deploy technology, intelligence and specialised enforcement to curb illegal mining, smuggling and the financing of armed groups through mineral extraction.

In states such as Niger, Zamfara and Kaduna, reports of illegal gold mining and mineral smuggling have raised serious security concerns. According to public statements attributed to security officials and NEITI-linked reports, Nigeria loses billions of dollars annually to illegal mining and gold smuggling. These figures should be formally verified, but the underlying problem is clear: illegal mining is not only an economic crime. It fuels insecurity, damages the environment, discourages lawful investors and deprives the country of revenue.

The human cost is also severe. Since 2010, Zamfara has suffered deadly lead poisoning linked to unsafe artisanal gold mining, with hundreds of children reported dead or permanently harmed. A sector associated with insecurity, mercury pollution and community suffering cannot attract responsible long-term investment.

The government should therefore combine enforcement with formalisation. Artisanal miners should be registered, trained and brought into regulated cooperatives, while criminal networks involved in smuggling should face targeted prosecution.

Creating an Investment-Friendly Environment

For solid minerals to drive diversification, Nigeria must make the sector easier and safer for credible investors. This begins with geological data. Investors need reliable, accessible and updated geoscience information before they can commit capital to exploration and mining.

Licensing should also be faster and more transparent. Genuine investors should not face endless delays, unclear fees or discretionary approvals. A digital licensing system, with published timelines and criteria, would help reduce corruption and improve confidence.

The policy environment must also be stable. Investors need clarity on taxes, royalties, land access, community obligations, environmental standards and dispute resolution. Nigeria cannot attract large-scale mining investment if rules shift unpredictably or if legal mining titles are undermined by illegal operators.

Promoting Transparency and Curbing Rent-Seeking

Transparency and sustainability must underpin the sector’s growth. Licensing processes, revenue collection and resource management should follow global best practices to reduce corruption and conflict.

The government should publish mining licences, beneficial ownership information, production figures, payments and community development obligations in accessible formats. NEITI audits should not simply be released; their recommendations should be tracked and enforced.

Independent audits, civil society monitoring and multi-stakeholder oversight can help expose leakages and build trust. Solid minerals can support real diversification only if managed with discipline, equity and foresight.

Capturing More Value Locally

Nigeria must not be content with exporting raw minerals and importing finished products. The country exports raw gold but imports jewellery and other finished precious products. It has lithium deposits, yet still imports batteries and energy-storage products. This reflects a deeper failure to capture value.

The government should promote local processing and semi-processing through industrial clusters, power supply, transport infrastructure, tax incentives and partnerships with private investors. Rather than imposing unrealistic blanket bans on raw exports before local capacity exists, Nigeria should adopt a phased value-addition strategy.

For example, minerals such as gold, lithium, barite and iron ore should be linked to domestic refining, processing or manufacturing targets. Export rules should encourage more value to remain within Nigeria, while investors who build local processing capacity should receive clear incentives.

Every shipment of raw ore represents more than a missed export opportunity. It can also mean lost jobs, lost industrial capacity and lost sovereign wealth.

Nigeria’s mineral deposits have been valued by some preliminary estimates at hundreds of billions of dollars. Yet the sector’s contribution to public revenue remains modest. This gap shows that the country’s problem is not the absence of mineral wealth, but the absence of a strong system to convert that wealth into national development.

As fossil fuel demand faces long-term pressure and global demand rises for minerals linked to infrastructure, renewable energy, electric vehicles and technology, Nigeria has a strategic opportunity. Gold, lithium, iron ore, limestone, barite and other minerals can help diversify the economy, deepen industrialisation and create jobs.

But resources alone will not save Nigeria. The lesson of oil is that wealth without governance can deepen dependency rather than end it. If Nigeria wants solid minerals to become a true engine of development, it must build the laws, institutions, security systems and value chains that oil never fully delivered. Only then can the country move beyond oil and turn its mineral wealth into shared prosperity.