The Federal Government spent approximately N7.21 billion running the Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited between 2020 and 2025, even though the nearly five-decade-old complex in Kogi State remained largely non-operational throughout the period, spending records have shown.

According to data obtained from GovSpend, a platform that tracks and analyses Federal Government expenditure, the funds were disbursed across 501 transactions covering statutory obligations such as taxes, pension and housing-fund contributions, along with maintenance costs, road works and other infrastructure-related payments.

The continued spending comes even as Nigeria remains heavily dependent on imported steel, with the country's iron and steel imports exceeding $1 trillion in 2025, according to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics. The NBS data further indicates that Nigeria's iron and steel imports have averaged about N526 billion annually over the past six years, figures that reflect only officially recorded trade.

Ajaokuta Steel was conceived in 1979 with Soviet backing as a flagship project meant to anchor Nigeria's industrialisation ambitions, with a designed capacity to produce up to five million tonnes of steel annually using the country's iron-ore deposits. Despite this vision, the plant has never achieved large-scale production since its inception.

A year-by-year breakdown of the spending shows that N795.4 million was expended in 2020 across 57 transactions, rising to N1.19 billion in 2021 with 119 transactions, before dropping to about N1.01 billion in 2022. Expenditure climbed again to N1.36 billion in 2023 and peaked at roughly N1.66 billion in 2024 across 107 transactions, before declining to approximately N1.20 billion in 2025, underscoring that the costs were recurring rather than a one-time intervention.

While some of the payments covered routine statutory obligations, others were tied to maintenance and infrastructure projects, including road rehabilitation and solar street light installations. Notably, the records also reveal payments linked to infrastructure work in Lagos, including projects around Obalende, Okofaji, Olowogbowo and Isale Eko, as well as the rehabilitation of a 250-metre access road on Lagos Island, raising questions about the scope of a Kogi-based steel company's involvement in projects outside its primary location.

The development comes as the government intensifies efforts to revive the moribund complex. The Ajaokuta Presidential Project and Implementation Team, set up in May 2020, has been working to fast-track the plant's turnaround and structure it for possible concession or partnership with private and international investors.

In a significant step towards revival, Ajaokuta Steel Company signed a 20-year gas supply agreement in July 2026 with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, alongside the Gas Aggregation Company of Nigeria and NNPC Exploration and Production Limited. The deal guarantees three million standard cubic feet of firm gas daily, with up to 47 million standard cubic feet of interruptible gas also available to support power generation and eventual steel production.

The company's Managing Director, Nasir Naeem Abdulsalam, who took charge of the turnaround effort in April 2025, disclosed that gas availability has consistently ranked as a top concern for prospective investors, noting that steel production cannot proceed without a reliable gas supply.

Currently, the complex shows only limited signs of activity, with engineers operating a modular blast furnace to produce manhole covers, utility poles and rail-track components for a small domestic market, a far cry from the plant's original multi-million-tonne production design.

The revelations come as President Bola Tinubu's administration pursues a target of achieving 10 million tonnes of annual crude-steel production by 2030 as part of its broader manufacturing expansion agenda. The Minister of Steel Development, Abubakar Audu, has previously disclosed that Nigeria spends about $4 billion, roughly N5.6 trillion, annually on iron and steel imports.

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