The Federal Government spent about N7.21bn running Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited between 2020 and 2025, even as the nearly 50-year-old complex in Kogi State remained largely dormant.
The expenditure spanned 501 transactions and covered taxes and other statutory obligations, pension and housing-fund contributions, maintenance, road works, and other infrastructure-related payments, according to spending records obtained from GovSpend and reviewed by The PUNCH on Monday.
GovSpend tracks and analyses Federal Government spending over time.
The spending occurred as Nigeria continued to rely heavily on imported steel, with the country’s iron and steel imports exceeding $1tn in 2025, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.
Nigeria’s iron and steel imports averaged about N526bn annually over the past six years, the NBS data showed. The figures represent officially recorded trade and exclude possible unrecorded or under-reported imports.
