Aliko Dangote, founder and president of the Dangote Group, has cast doubt on the prospects of reviving the long-stalled Ajaokuta Steel Company.

In a video shared on X, he stressed the central role of a strong steel industry in driving national development but argued that Ajaokuta’s deep-rooted problems make its revival far-fetched.

He compared efforts to resuscitate the plant to trying to pit obsolete technology against modern advancements.

“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."

“It’s like you now, if you remember those vehicles we used to produce from Volkswagen (Igala). If you bring Igala now, would you now compare it to the current Kia. No, things have changed,” Dangote said.

“Things have changed and all of us have to keep changing or you will become archaic, it’s like you going to the graveyards to try being a dead person or you go to the hospital to bring somebody from his dying bed to run 100 meters, it’s impossible,” he noted.

Ajaokuta Steel, a massive but unfinished steel plant in Kogi State, was conceived in 1979 as the “bedrock of Nigeria’s industrialization.”

More than forty years later, it remains largely idle, plagued by mismanagement despite swallowing over $10 billion as of 2023. Successive governments have described the plant as “almost ready,” yet it has never produced a single sheet of steel.

Rising costs despite zero output

The costs of maintaining the moribund facility continue to mount. In the 2024 budget, the federal government allocated N4.45 billion to Ajaokuta Steel.

For 2025, that figure rose to N6.81 billion, with personnel expenses consuming 91.19 per cent of the total.

Salaries alone accounted for N6.21 billion, a 44.76 per cent increase from the N4.29 billion earmarked in 2024, despite the company’s failure to generate any output since inception. (Business Insider Africa)