NRS Pledges Transparent Administration Of Mining Royalty, Others Under New Tax Regime

Nigeria’s mining sector is set for a major fiscal overhaul as the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) has pledged transparency, fairness and accountability in the administration of mining royalties and related fees under the country’s new tax laws.

The assurance was given during a mining stakeholders’ workshop by the Executive Director of the Government and Large Taxpayers Directorate of the NRS, Amina Ado, who said the reforms were aimed at addressing long-standing challenges in the solid minerals sector, including illegal mining, weak oversight and revenue leakages.

According to Ado, the new tax laws signed in June 2025 by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu transferred the collection of mineral royalties and other mining-related fees to the Nigeria Revenue Service effective January 1, 2026.

“Since the first of January this year, by the tax laws signed in June 2025 by His Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the collection of mineral royalty and other fees in the solid minerals sector have come under the purview of NRS,” she said.

She clarified that while the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development would continue to regulate the sector and provide geological, production and pricing data, mining operators would now deal with a single fiscal authority for revenue obligations.

“One framework. One assessment. One door to knock on. That is Nigeria Revenue Service,” Ado stated.

The NRS executive explained that the reforms were designed to eliminate multiple taxation and overlapping demands that had burdened operators and discouraged compliance in the past.

According to her, the new framework would create a more predictable and transparent system capable of encouraging formalisation within the sector.

“When many bodies lay a claim on the same operator, no single body carries the cost of over-reach and so the demands multiply, the burden becomes unknowable, and the sector retreats from view,” she said.

Ado stressed that the agency’s approach would go beyond tax collection to ensuring the long-term sustainability of the mining industry.

“We hear the concerns of the mining community. We will administer the tax laws in the spirit of a Service that wants the sector alive, formal, and thriving — not just taxed,” she added.

She identified poor visibility and weak government oversight as major problems that had plagued the sector for decades, noting that informal and illegal mining operations had flourished in several parts of the country.

“A government cannot assess what it cannot see. It cannot collect what it has not assessed. It cannot account for what it has not collected,” she stated.

The NRS official warned that the absence of effective regulation had enabled illegal miners, foreign syndicates and armed groups to exploit mineral resources in states such as Zamfara, Niger and Kaduna without accountability.

“In Zamfara, in Niger, in parts of Kaduna and beyond, the vacuum where formal authority should have stood did not remain empty. It was filled by illegal operators, by foreign syndicates working our gold and lithium with no licence and no accountability,” she said.

Ado urged mining operators to embrace formalisation, saying it would provide legal protection, predictability and improved security for licensed miners.

“Visibility is not only an obligation we ask of you. It is, in the end, a protection we owe you,” she said.

She further assured stakeholders that the implementation of the reforms would be guided by dialogue, clarity and fairness, regardless of the size of mining operations.

“We intend to meet it through clarity, you will know what is required of you, and when. Through fairness, like cases treated alike, whether the operator is a multinational or a registered cooperative of artisanal miners in Kebbi,” Ado stated.