After decades of false starts at Ajaokuta, private investors are stepping in with $2.72 billion in new commitments to address Nigeria’s $4 billion steel deficit. The push represents the most concrete private-sector momentum the nation’s heavy industry has seen in over a decade.
The capital layout is heavily concentrated in two anchor projects totaling $1.75 billion. These include a $1.3 billion effort to revive the Delta Steel mill and a $450 million Chinese-backed plant in Ogun State. Together, these two sites account for nearly two-thirds of all fresh commitments. The remaining $965 million sits in preliminary proposals and memorandums of understanding that have yet to achieve financial close.
This shift toward private funding highlights growing impatience with state-led industrialization. For years, the public treasury poured funds into monumental projects like the Ajaokuta Steel Complex, which yielded virtually no commercial output, leaving domestic builders entirely dependent on foreign imports.
Experts noted that the investments would help kick-start the country’s weak and broken steel industry; however, they warned that money alone won’t be enough without the government’s sincerity and transparency.
