Nigeria loses about $5 billion annually to steel imports, a drain on foreign reserves that could be plugged if the country revived its dormant steel plants, the Director General of the National Metallurgical Development Centre (NMDC), Prof. Linux Asuquo, has warned.
Speaking in Abuja on Thursday, Prof. Asuquo called for urgent and decisive political action to reposition the steel industry, stressing that Nigeria cannot achieve meaningful industrial development without functional steel production facilities.
He commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s pledge to transform Nigeria into a regional steel powerhouse, targeting 10 million tonnes of liquid steel annually and creating over 500,000 jobs by 2030, but insisted that implementation, not policy promises, will determine success.
“Implementation means steel must be poured and rolled, not just talked about,” Asuquo said. “If we can spend trillions of naira on politics, we can commit the same energy and resources to steel.
The president has already shown political will; now we must complete the plants, especially Ajaokuta.”According to him, reviving steel production will drastically cut unemployment, generate wealth, and strengthen the country’s foreign exchange reserves.
He welcomed the creation of the Ministry of Steel Development but warned that it must yield concrete results and not merely serve as a political gesture. “This is the third time Nigeria is having a steel ministry or department,” he noted. “This time, we must implement, not just create offices. The political will is there; now is the time to act.”
