Nigeria has an estimated three billion tonnes of iron ore reserves ready to sustain operations at the Ajaokuta Steel Complex for decades, according to the National Steel Raw Materials Exploration Agency. But the plant still hasn’t begun full commercial operations, and that gap keeps the country’s mineral wealth locked behind a stalled industrial project while mining stays below potential.
Who Holds the Switch
Director-General Kolawole Ogunbiyi said the raw material supply will not delay steel production once the plant begins operating. He disclosed this in Kaduna while outlining the agency’s preparedness to support the revival of Nigeria’s steel industry through the supply of critical raw materials. The message is plain enough: the ore exists, the state knows where it is, and the bottleneck sits at the top of the chain, where Ajaokuta remains inactive.
Ogunbiyi said extensive geological exploration over the years had confirmed that Nigeria has abundant deposits of iron ore, limestone and coal, the three essential raw materials required for steel production, with iron ore accounting for about 95 per cent of steel-making inputs. He said the country’s estimated three billion tonnes of iron ore reserves represent a major strategic asset capable of driving industrialisation and reducing dependence on imported steel. That’s the official script. The reality underneath is less polished: raw materials sit in the ground while the machinery of production stays stuck.
“The iron ore in Itakpe has no equal, both in quality and quantity. It has been subjected to laboratory tests to determine how viable and suitable it is for the steel rolling plant,” Ogunbiyi said. He identified the Itakpe iron ore deposit in Kogi State as the backbone of Nigeria’s integrated steel development programme, saying its high iron content and low impurity levels make it ideal for steel production. The state has the ore. The system has the reports. What it doesn’t have is a functioning plant.
Who Pays for the Delay
Despite the reserves, Ogunbiyi said mining activities have remained below potential because the Ajaokuta Steel Complex, the principal off-taker for the ore, has yet to commence full commercial operations. He said the original framework of the integrated steel project assigned the National Iron Ore Mining Company, Itakpe, the responsibility of mining the ore for supply to Ajaokuta Steel Company for processing into finished steel products. That arrangement leaves the whole chain waiting on one central node, and when that node stalls, everyone below it absorbs the cost.
“The abundance of iron ore in Itakpe cannot be fully utilised because there are no off-takers like the Ajaokuta Steel Plant, which requires a significant portion of the raw materials to produce steel,” he said. The line says everything about hierarchy. Extraction can happen. Testing can happen. Planning can happen. But without the plant, the rest of the system is forced into suspension.
Ogunbiyi recalled that the federal government, in collaboration with Russian experts, conducted extensive aeromagnetic surveys and geological investigations that led to the discovery and detailed evaluation of the Itakpe deposits, as well as substantial limestone and coal reserves needed for steel production. He said limestone deposits are currently being licensed mainly for cement production because Ajaokuta is not yet operational, but stressed that sufficient quantities remain available for future steel manufacturing. So even the byproducts get redirected by the absence of the main project, feeding another industry while the promised steel complex sits dormant.
What They Want Funded
He also said Nigeria has large coal deposits in Obi-Lafia, Nasarawa State, but said additional in-seam exploration is required to determine their commercial viability and improve their suitability for steel production. “There is coal in Obi-Lafia in Nasarawa State. It is found in large quantity, but the impurities must be extracted because the lower the ash content, the better it is for steel production. We are asking the government to support us in commencing in-seam exploration,” he said.
Ogunbiyi said the agency’s laboratory continues to play a critical role in testing the quality of discovered minerals before detailed exploration is undertaken to establish commercially viable reserves. He appealed to the Federal Government to increase funding for mineral exploration, saying NSRMEA requires modern laboratory equipment, drones and advanced exploration technologies to strengthen geological investigations across the country. The ask is familiar: more public money, more equipment, more state-backed capacity, all in service of a project that still depends on top-down decisions to move.
According to him, improved funding would enable the agency to generate reliable geological data capable of attracting greater foreign direct investment into Nigeria’s mining and steel sectors. He also called for stronger collaboration among government, investors, technology partners and industry stakeholders to fast-track the revival of the steel industry. That’s the coalition on offer: government, investors, technology partners and industry stakeholders, all gathered around a project whose benefits are promised upward and outward, while the delay lands on ordinary people and the economy they’re told to wait for.
Ogunbiyi said ongoing efforts by the Minister of Steel Development, Prince Shuaibu Abubakar Audu, to attract strategic investors would accelerate the commencement of steel production at Ajaokuta. He said reviving the steel industry would diversify Nigeria’s economy, create thousands of jobs, boost local manufacturing and reduce the country’s dependence on crude oil exports. The promise is always the same. Jobs later. Growth later. Transformation later.
The NSRMEA boss said the agency’s activities align with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s policy of ending the export of raw minerals without local value addition. He also highlighted the Federal Government’s Early-Stage Mineral Exploration and Research Grant Endowment initiative, which seeks to unlock more than $750 billion worth of untapped mineral resources through expanded geological research, de-risked exploration and increased local processing of strategic minerals, including iron ore, limestone, coal, gold and lithium.
Ogunbiyi maintained that with sustained investment in exploration and the eventual take-off of the Ajaokuta Steel Complex, Nigeria possesses the raw material base required to build a globally competitive steel industry capable of driving long-term economic growth and industrial transformation. For now, though, the ore remains in place, the plant remains unfinished, and the whole arrangement waits on the decisions of institutions that have already shown how long they can leave a country’s resources idle.