President Bola Tinubu is expected to visit Nasarawa State to commission a new 6,000-metric-ton lithium processing plant built by Chinese investors, Governor Abdullahi Sule said on Wednesday.
Sule revealed this to State House correspondents after closed-door talks with the President at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja, on Wednesday.
The facility, located in Nasarawa Local Government Area, is the second lithium plant constructed in the state within the last year and is twice the size of the previous 3,000MT capacity project launched in 2023.
Sule, who gave no definite date, said the visit will follow the President’s return from France after a two-week stay scheduled to begin later this week.
‘They said they were going to build a bigger one…they have just concluded building it, and it is ready for commissioning.
‘Mr. President promised that on his return from his short vacation, he’s going to come to Nasarawa to commission the project’, Sule stated.
Nasarawa, north-central Nigeria, is a growing hub in the country’s burgeoning lithium value chain.
Lithium, a key component in electric vehicle batteries and energy storage systems, has attracted increasing interest from foreign investors amid global energy transition efforts.
Sule added, ‘Today has to do with the lithium processing plant that we have just finished building by an investor that came from China.
‘If you remember, last year, we commissioned the 3000 metric tons capacity lithium processing plant in Nasarawa local government.
‘And during the period, another set of investors, because of how excited they were with the quality of lithium and the commercial deposit that they noticed’.
Since the twilight of the Buhari years, the Federal Government said it has been working to attract more value-added investments in critical minerals.
In May, the FG said it would commission at least two Chinese-backed lithium processing plants in 2025 as part of its beneficiation push aimed at curbing raw mineral exports and boosting in-country refining capacity.
The Nasarawa plant, Sule said, is one of several such projects supported by China-based companies following a surge in exploration activity and preliminary assessments confirming commercial-grade deposits in the area.
‘Because of how excited they [the investors] were with the quality of lithium and the commercial deposit they noticed, they fulfilled their promise to build something bigger’, said Sule.
The Ministry of Solid Minerals planned to restrict lithium exports to encourage domestic processing, similar to models seen in Indonesia’s nickel industry and Zimbabwe’s lithium sector.
Sule also linked the state’s infrastructure expansion to reforms implemented by the Tinubu administration, including the removal of fuel subsidies and the unification of the naira’s exchange rate system.
‘There has been significant revenue improvement. With the huge improvement we have seen, we came with the passion to go ahead and do more.
‘Instead of borrowing from the banks, we are now utilising the improved resources that we have’, he said.
Earlier in the year, Tinubu declared Nigeria’s intention to become a regional hub for lithium-ion battery and solar panel manufacturing, citing growing global demand and Nigeria’s abundant mineral wealth.
The FG said it has launched a mining police unit to clamp down on illegal mining activities, particularly in the north-central region, where artisanal operations have proliferated.
