THE Federal Government hopes to generate N20 billion in mining by the end of 2020.

It said this would be four times better than what the government made last year in the sector.

Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, said the revenue collected by Federal Mines Officers (FMO) in states is $30million  yearly, making the government’s target of N20 billion possible.

He spoke on Tuesday in Abuja during a presentation  of the ministerial committee from the mineral sector on revenue optimisation report.

Adegbite said two major mandates of the committee are to create employment and widen the revenue base of government.

The minister implored the committee to make improvements in revenue generation compared to the past and set N20 billion as target by this year end.

He said: “So, if we are able to fulfill this, we would have scored 50 per cent and that is the pass mark. Everybody can see the quantum leap from what we made this year because this year we have made N5billion which is an improvement over the past which is the highest so far, but I don’t want this increment anymore.

“Let’s look by the end of this year, we can do N20 billion. That would be four times better than what we got last year. It’s possible.

“A lot of construction is going on in Lagos. Sand is being used. So, apart from sand dredging, you can’t tell me you are making N2.5 million every month. So either somebody is not doing his work very well or something is wrong somewhere. So, I’m sure all these have been dealt with in the recommendation of this report.”

The report had said the Federal Government, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Nigerian Customs Service (NSC) is proposing to introduce pre-shipmment inspection and issuance of Clean Certificate of Inspection (CCI) on all mineral commodities due for export.

The move, the committee said, should be done by an appointed agent in line with the provisions of the Pre-shipment Inspection of Exports Act No. 10 of 1996 Cap. P25 L.F.N. 2004.