Abstract
Over the past four decades, increasing emphasis has come to be placed on the potential importance of solid
mineral resources to the Nigerian economy. A more common strand of research is those that tested the
resource curse hypothesis to show empirically the actual relationship between natural resources and
economic growth. Whereas, most of the studies have looked at various resource endowment, especially oil
and metals, just a few have focused on solid mineral resources. This paper empirically tries to expose the
potentiality in solid mineral resources as viable alternative to the petroleum sector, which production in
Nigeria is unpredictable and the crisis in the region that produce the oil make unreliable as revenueearning source for the country. Using various econometric tools of analysis, the variables for study were
tested for stationarity and all variables became stationary at first difference. In the same vein, evidence
revealed that series in the model exhibit long-run equilibrium relationship judging from the Johansen
cointegration result. Major findings from the OLS output showed that, a billion naira increase in solid
minerals development e.g. quarrying, bauxite, metal ores, iron ore, coal etc will contribute 0.26 billion
naira to the GDP of Nigeria. This contribution, though negligible is commendable owing to the fact that
successive administrations in Nigeria have paid scant attention to the development of the solid minerals
sector. Nigeria over the decades was trapped in the web of the Netherlands affliction known as the Dutch
disease where proceeds from crude oil sale led to almost complete neglect of the non-oil sector. The study
recommended that in view of the importance of the solid minerals sector as part of the federal government
policy on diversifying the economy away from oil revenue, the government must formulate an explicit
export-promotion programme based on principles of comparative advantage in order to encourage the
growth of the sector. The government should encourage private investment, both local and foreign, through
adequate provision of infrastructures, and encouragement of macroeconomic stability such as low inflation
rate, stable exchange rate and assurance of security such as reduction in attacks by herdsmen across the
country, kidnapping, the Boko Haram insurgency etc, that has contributed greatly in stagnating
exploration activities across such regions.
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