Ajaokuta Steel Company, Nigeria’s long-dormant industrial giant, has come under fresh scrutiny after revelations that its Managing Director, Prof. Nasir Naeem Abdulsalam, receives a monthly salary of ₦5.5 million despite the plant’s continued inactivity.
Public financial records have ignited a debate over fiscal waste at the Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited. According to data from the public payments portal, GovSpend, the Managing Director of the company, Prof. Nasir Naeem Abdulsalam, was paid ₦5.578 million as his August 2025 salary. Abdulsalam, a Professor of Geophysics and former technical adviser to the Minister of Steel Development, was appointed by President Bola Tinubu in April 2025 with a mandate to revitalize the facility. However, nearly a year into his tenure, the plant—which has not produced a single sheet of steel in over four decades—continues to function primarily as a high-cost payroll center.
The 2026 Appropriation Bill further highlights the lopsided spending at the complex, with ₦6.04 billion earmarked for personnel costs out of a total budgetary allocation of ₦6.69 billion. This means that over 90% of the funds allocated to the “moribund” facility are dedicated to salaries, allowances, and social contributions for approximately 3,000 workers. In contrast, capital expenditure for actual rehabilitation or production remains minimal. This trend of “funding redundancy” has drawn sharp criticism from economic analysts who argue that the facility has become an “unproductive drainpipe” for scarce national resources, especially as the government introduces new taxes on active businesses.
The issue recently reached a boiling point in the National Assembly. On Wednesday, February 11, 2026, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan (Kogi Central) walked out of a Senate Committee meeting on Mines and Steel Development following a heated exchange over the plant’s status. The lawmaker, whose district hosts the complex, questioned the transparency of recent Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) and expressed frustration over the lack of progress. “We only seem to meet at budget presentations… we just meet, we talk to the media, and then every day we fold our arms and do nothing,” she remarked before the session was abruptly adjourned. While the Ministry of Steel Development maintains that a revival plan involving Russian and Chinese partners is underway, the continued payment of multi-million naira salaries for zero output remains a flashpoint for public anger.
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