Nigeria is sitting on approximately three billion tonnes of iron ore reserves, but the country’s long-delayed steel ambitions remain tied to more than just the availability of raw materials. The National Steel Raw Materials Exploration Agency says further exploration, credible geological data, funding and reliable off-takers are needed to turn the country’s mineral wealth into steel, jobs and industrial growth. DAMILOLA AINA writes
for decades, Nigeria has talked about the enormous mineral wealth beneath its soil. Iron ore, coal, limestone, gold, lithium and tin have all been identified as resources capable of supporting industrial growth.
But identifying mineral deposits is not the same as building factories, creating jobs or developing an industrial economy. That is the challenge facing Nigeria’s long-delayed steel development programme.
President Bola Tinubu has repeatedly stressed that identifying natural resources, including iron ore, coal, limestone, gold, lithium and tin, is not enough to build factories or create
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