A renowned economist and former Senior Special Adviser to the President of the African Development Bank on Industrialisation, Prof. Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, has said Nigeria could unlock up to $115bn in GDP and create 70,000 jobs if the Ajaokuta Steel Company is revived through privatisation.\n<\/p>\n
In his keynote address at a virtual international conference titled \u201cThe Ajaokuta Phenomenon in Tinubu\u2019s Era: A Turning Point or Another Missed Opportunity?\u201d, Oyelaran-Oyeyinka said the steel plant remained critical to Nigeria\u2019s industrial future.\n<\/p>\n
In a statement on Friday, he said, \u201cThis keynote slide tells the story in three numbers \u2014 $115bn in GDP gain, $9.1bn in foreign exchange savings, and 70,000 jobs created.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are not just statistics; they represent growth, stability, and opportunity for millions of Nigerians. Reviving Ajaokuta is not about steel alone \u2014 it\u2019s about reclaiming our economic sovereignty, empowering our youth, and building the foundation of a self-reliant industrial future.\u201d<\/p>\n
The conference was organised by the Coalition for the Revival of Ajaokuta.\n<\/p>\n
Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, a Fellow of the Open University, UK, called for the urgent privatisation of the steel complex, insisting that decades of government control had failed to deliver results.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe time for hesitation has passed. The time for decisive action is now. Public ownership and management of steel should end,\u201d he declared.<\/p>\n
He proposed that a capable Nigerian consortium, backed by experienced foreign partners, should take over the plant.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cMy specific recommendation is to allow a capable Nigerian group or consortium to take majority ownership, with foreign partners that have a proven record of operating steel plants,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
Oyelaran-Oyeyinka cited South Korea\u2019s POSCO as a model, noting that strategic reforms and private sector participation transformed it into a global steel giant.\n<\/p>\n
He described Ajaokuta as a \u201cmonumental white elephant\u201d, lamenting that despite billions of dollars invested since the 1970s, the plant has failed to produce steel at scale.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe invested between $6\u201310bn\u2026 yet decades later, Ajaokuta remains idle \u2014 a monument to unrealised potential,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
According to him, Nigeria continues to import about $4bn worth of steel annually, worsening pressure on foreign exchange and limiting industrial growth.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cA country of over 200 million people without primary steel production is a travesty,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
He further warned that if entrenched interests frustrate reforms, Nigeria should consider an alternative private-sector-led model.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIf rent-seekers will not allow it, I repeat, let us find the Dangote Refinery solution to the challenge of primary steel production,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
He urged the Federal Government to act decisively to reposition the sector, warning that continued delay would leave Nigeria dependent on imports.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cLet us choose progress over paralysis, action over hesitation, and transformation over dependence. The time to revive Ajaokuta is now \u2014 for growth, for savings, and for jobs.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cReviving Ajaokuta is not just about producing 1.3MT of steel \u2014 it is about catching up with comparator nations that used steel to transform their economies. Without decisive action, Nigeria risks remaining import-dependent while peers continue to leverage steel as a foundation for prosperity,\u201d he added.\n<\/p>\n
Other panellists at the conference echoed concerns over the project\u2019s long-standing challenges.\n<\/p>\n
A professor at FUT Minna, Oladiran Abubakare, warned against repeating past mistakes, attributing the plant\u2019s failure largely to corruption.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem with Ajaokuta is corruption\u2026 a company that produced more ministers than producing steel,\u201d he said, urging stakeholders to closely monitor any new agreements.\n<\/p>\n
Similarly, policy analyst Collins Nweke described Ajaokuta as Nigeria\u2019s \u201cmost enduring industrial paradox.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\u201cA project that reached about 98 per cent completion\u2026 has never produced steel at industrial scale after more than four decades,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
He cautioned that while there are signs of renewed government interest under President Bola Tinubu, success would depend on execution rather than policy announcements.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cAjaokuta does not fail for lack of plans; it fails at the point of execution,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
The session was moderated by Mohamad Attah of the Coalition for the Revival of Ajaokuta.\n<\/p>\n
Other panellists included Dele Ajayi-Smith and Clifford Thomas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A renowned economist and former Senior Special Adviser to the President of the African Development Bank on Industrialisation,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[185596,175899,81164,84,62,1294,36701,185597,23869,146133,185598,185599,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-537456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-ajaokuta-steel-company","tag-banji-oyelaran-oyeyinka","tag-bola-tinubu","tag-business","tag-economic-growth","tag-economy","tag-foreign-exchange","tag-industrialisation","tag-job-creation","tag-nigerian-economy","tag-privatisation","tag-steel-production","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}