US awards $125,000 grant to preserve Nigeria’s 4,000-year-old Lejja Iron-Smelting Site in Enugu

The United States has awarded a $125,000 Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation grant to the Center for Memories in Enugu to digitally document and physically preserve the historic Lejja Iron-Smelting Site — dating to approximately 2000 BC — one of Nigeria’s oldest known centres of technological innovation.

According to Tribune, US Consul General Brandon Hudspeth launched the “Nchekwaba: Lejja Iron-Smelting” project in Lagos, noting the site “tells a 4,000-year-old story of ingenuity, innovation, and technological sophistication.”

“The United States has invested approximately $1.2 million in cultural heritage preservation projects in Nigeria over the past five years,” Hudspeth said, describing the investment as “a strategic economic intervention” rather than aid.