From Forgotten Ministry to Industrial Powerhouse: How Tinubu and Dele Alake Are Rewriting Nigeria’s Solid Minerals Story

By Olumide Bajulaiye

For decades, Nigeria’s vast mineral wealth enriched illegal miners and foreign industries while contributing little to national development. Today, a bold policy shift under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the leadership of Dele Alake is positioning the solid minerals sector as the next frontier of Nigeria’s industrial revolution.

There was widespread surprise when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu named Dele Alake as Minister of Solid Minerals Development in August 2023.
To many Nigerians, Alake was synonymous with journalism, political communication and public affairs. He was one of the country’s most accomplished media strategists and a trusted ally of the President, but not a mining professional.

The appointment triggered criticism. Some questioned whether a media strategist could successfully lead one of Nigeria’s most technically demanding ministries.

Three years later, those doubts are gradually giving way to a different conversation.

The Solid Minerals Development Ministry—once regarded as one of the least influential and most underfunded ministries in government—is emerging as one of the most strategic pillars of President Tinubu’s economic agenda.

The transformation did not happen by accident.
President Tinubu recognised a truth successive administrations struggled to translate into action: Nigeria cannot achieve genuine industrialisation while exporting its mineral wealth in raw form. A nation blessed with lithium, gold, barite, limestone, rare earth elements and dozens of other strategic minerals should not remain at the bottom of the global value chain.

For decades, that was exactly Nigeria’s reality.
Illegal mining syndicates flourished across the country. Valuable minerals crossed Nigeria’s borders with little regulation, creating wealth for criminal networks while governments earned almost nothing. Host communities were left with degraded environments, insecurity and poverty.

The country’s enormous mineral deposits became a symbol of wasted opportunity.

Rather than accepting that status quo, Tinubu’s administration chose a different path.

The guiding philosophy has been straightforward: no strategic mineral should leave Nigeria without value addition.

This policy represents more than an economic reform. It is a declaration that Nigeria must stop exporting jobs, industries and prosperity to other nations.

Instead of shipping raw lithium overseas for processing, the government wants the processing done inside Nigeria. Instead of exporting raw gold, it wants refining and jewellery manufacturing to happen at home. Instead of remaining merely a supplier of raw materials, Nigeria aims to become a producer of finished and semi-finished industrial products.

That vision is beginning to attract serious investment.

In Nasarawa State, two lithium processing plants worth more than $500 million have been completed, promising over 10,000 direct jobs and many thousands more across transport, logistics, engineering and other support services.

Another rare earth processing facility valued at approximately $400 million is under construction in the same state, reinforcing Nasarawa’s growing reputation as one of Africa’s emerging critical minerals hubs.

The industrial momentum extends beyond Nasarawa.

A $200 million lithium processing plant has been established in the Federal Capital Territory, while another investment estimated at $400 million is taking shape along the Kaduna-Niger corridor.
Lagos State is now home to a modern gold refining facility valued at around $50 million, another important milestone in Nigeria’s determination to retain greater value from its natural resources.

Equally significant is the government’s commitment to developing specialised mineral processing hubs across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones. Gold processing in Kogi, pharmaceutical mineral processing in Bauchi, jewellery production in Kano, lead and zinc processing in Ebonyi, barite processing in Cross River and additional mineral processing infrastructure in Oyo are designed to spread industrial growth beyond a handful of states.
Collectively, these projects are changing the conversation about mining in Nigeria.

Mining is no longer viewed simply as digging minerals from the ground. It is increasingly becoming a catalyst for industrialisation, technology transfer, manufacturing and large-scale employment.

Government estimates indicate that more than $2.6 billion has been invested in mineral processing projects within three years, with over 60,000 direct jobs reportedly created and many more indirect employment opportunities expected as the sector expands.

Critics may argue that much remains to be done—and they are right.

Illegal mining has not disappeared. Infrastructure gaps remain. Regulatory enforcement must continue to improve. Security challenges still affect parts of the mining industry. Environmental protection requires constant vigilance.

Yet, acknowledging these challenges should not obscure the significance of what is unfolding.
For perhaps the first time in decades, Nigeria’s solid minerals sector is being treated not as an afterthought, but as a cornerstone of national economic transformation.

The broader significance goes beyond mining itself.
As global demand for lithium, rare earth elements and other critical minerals accelerates because of electric vehicles, renewable energy and advanced technology manufacturing, countries rich in these resources face a historic choice. They can continue exporting raw materials while others manufacture finished products, or they can build domestic industries that create wealth, technology and employment.

President Tinubu appears determined that Nigeria should choose the second option.

Whether history ultimately judges this policy a complete success will depend on consistency, transparency and sustained implementation. But one conclusion is already becoming difficult to dispute.

The ministry once dismissed as one of government’s least important is steadily becoming one of the engines driving Nigeria’s industrial future.
If the current momentum is sustained, the greatest legacy of the Tinubu administration in the solid minerals sector may not simply be the billions of dollars invested or the thousands of jobs created. It may be proving that Nigeria’s mineral wealth can finally work for Nigerians—not just for illegal miners, foreign processors or criminal syndicates.

That would represent not merely a reform of one ministry, but the beginning of a new industrial chapter in the nation’s history.

This version is written in a magazine feature style with a stronger advocacy tone while still presenting the claims as attributed to the government’s agenda rather than as established fact.