Ajaokuta Steel gets N6.5bn budgetary allocation for 2026, despite inactivity

More than four decades after its abandonment, the Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited, ASCL, remains Nigeria’s most heavily funded yet unproductive industrial project, continuing to attract huge budgetary allocations without contributing to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP.

Following the overthrow of the Shehu Shagari administration in 1983 by a military coup led by the late Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, work at the Ajaokuta Steel Plant stalled. Since then, successive governments — including the current administration of President Bola Tinubu — have consistently made budgetary provisions for the moribund project, running into billions of naira annually, with little or nothing to show for it.

In the 2026 Appropriation Bill presented by President Tinubu to the National Assembly on December 19, 2025, the steel sector was allocated a total of N22 billion. Of this amount, Ajaokuta Steel Company received the highest allocation of N6.5 billion, while the headquarters of the Ministry of Steel Development was allotted N5.4 billion.

A breakdown of ASCL’s allocation shows that N6.1 billion is earmarked for personnel costs, N233.1 million for overheads, and only N410 million for capital expenditure, further underscoring the absence of productive activity at the plant.

Curiously, the company’s budget also includes a line item under code ERGP1235817 for the “Provision of Grants for Market Women and Youths in Moro Local Government Area of Kwara North Senatorial District,” with an allocation of N14 million.

This trend is not new. In the 2025 fiscal year, the Federal Government earmarked N6.21 billion for salaries at Ajaokuta Steel, up from N4.29 billion in 2024, despite the plant’s continued inactivity.

Although the Tinubu-led administration has, since 2023, made several promises and assurances regarding the revival of the steel plant, no tangible progress has been recorded. Instead, personnel and overhead costs continue to rise annually.

Notably, there is little public information or detailed reporting on actual operations at the steel plant, even as it continues to receive substantial allocations from the national budget.