Dangote Says Ajaokuta Steel Company “Will Never Work,” Urges Adaptation To Modern Technology

Aliko Dangote, founder and president/chief executive of the Dangote Group, has expressed skepticism over the prospects of reviving the Ajaokuta Steel Company, describing it as unviable.

Speaking in a video shared on TVC’s X handle on Tuesday, Dangote stressed the critical role of a functional steel industry for national development but said the challenges at Ajaokuta make its success unlikely.

“There is no nation that you can build without a steel industry and honestly within us here, Ajaokuta will not work. We can keep deceiving ourselves and keep being passionate about it, but it’s not possible,” he said.

He likened attempts to revive Ajaokuta to bringing outdated technology into the modern era. “It’s like the vehicles we used to produce from Volkswagen (Igala). If you bring Igala now, would you compare it to the current Kia? No, things have changed,” he added.

Dangote also compared the effort to revive the plant to trying to make a dying patient run a race, saying, “When you carry something like Ajaokuta, it’s like going to the graveyard to bring a dead person or to the hospital to bring somebody who is on the dying bed to run 100 metres. It’s totally impossible.”

The Ajaokuta Steel Company, located in Kogi State, was constructed between 1979 and the mid-1990s but was never fully completed and has operated suboptimally for over two decades despite government interventions.

In 2022, the Nigerian government agreed to pay $496 million to settle a dispute with an Indian firm over control of the facility, following a revocation of an earlier concession in 2008. That same year, 11 companies, including three Russian firms, expressed interest in taking over the steel company on a concession basis.

Since assuming office in August 2023, Minister of Steel Development Shuaibu Audu has pledged to revive Ajaokuta Steel, promising a roadmap for the sector, completion of the plant, and necessary legislation. In September 2023, the federal government signed an agreement with a Russian consortium for the rehabilitation, completion, and operation of Ajaokuta Steel and the National Iron Ore Mining Company.