Niger State has allocated 500 hectares of land to Abuja Steel Mills Limited, a subsidiary of Indian billionaire Raj Gupta’s African Industries Group (AIG), to build what the company describes as sub-Saharan Africa’s largest solar-powered steel manufacturing complex.
Governor Mohammed Umar Bago handed over the land at a groundbreaking ceremony in Sabon Wuse, in the state’s Tafa area, in late June. The site will host an integrated steel plant, a utility-scale solar power installation and a new industrial park. Gupta said the project could become Nigeria’s largest solar power installation and potentially the biggest anywhere in West Africa or sub-Saharan Africa dedicated to powering a steel plant.
Bago said the state government plans to gazette an additional 200,000 hectares of industrial land stretching toward neighboring Kaduna State, an expansion expected to draw on the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano gas pipeline, the region’s solar resources and hydropower assets including the Kainji, Jebba, Shiroro and Zungeru dams.
Nigeria’s Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, called the land allocation an act of industrial statesmanship, saying investments of this scale would help address chronic electricity shortages that have long burdened the country’s manufacturers. Steel Development Minister Shuaibu Audu linked the project to the federal government’s goal of building a $1 trillion economy by 2030, citing steel production as central to industrialization efforts. Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment John Enoh said the project would help cut Nigeria’s reliance on imported steel while creating jobs.
African Industries Group, which traces its roots to the early 1970s, has grown into one of Nigeria’s largest industrial conglomerates, operating around 31 plants nationwide and employing about 10,000 people across steel, mining, chemicals, glass and real estate operations. Construction timelines and the project’s total cost were not disclosed at the ceremony.
