Business
NEITI To Audit Solid Minerals Sector
The Nigeria Extractive Industry Initiative (NEITI)’s auditor for the solid minerals sector, Alhaji Haruna Yahaya, has pledged to complete the audit of the sector by December.
Yahaya, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Haruna Yahaya & Co, made the promise while speaking in an interview with newsmen on Saturday in Abuja.
He said that the firm had put in place all the necessary machinery to begin the inaugural audit of the sector, which would cover the period of 2007 to 2010.
“Based on our technical proposal, we have the required human and material resources to execute this contract.
“We believe we can do it and we have the capability to do it. We also assure the board of NEITI that we will do a good job that is anchored on professionalism and integrity,’’ he said.
Yahaya said that the firm had already presented 23 templates to the stakeholders in the sector and had already begun field data collection.
He also said that the firm had already dispatched teams to various mining or quarrying sites across the country for the data collection.
Yahaya said that although the solid minerals sector was not well-organised like the petroleum sector, the firm was, nonetheless, poised to do a thorough job.
NEITI had signed a N137 million contract with the indigenous firm to conduct the first audit of the solid minerals sector in the country.
NEITI’s Executive Secretary, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, had earlier underscored the need to begin the audit of the sector, in line with NIETI’s mandate and the need to expand the government’s sources of revenue.