Nigeria’s lithium boom fails to reach host communities

Nigeria’s lithium boom is struggling to benefit host communities, with weak regulation, unfulfilled promises and insecurity plaguing mining areas, a joint investigation by Premium Times and The New Humanitarian, published on AllAfrica, has found.

Nigeria’s lithium belt stretches from Oyo to Kano and is estimated to be worth more than $34 billion. Chinese investment in processing plants alone has reached $1.3 billion.

But regulatory oversight remains thin. In Niger State, mines inspectors have only one vehicle and four staff.

In Kangimi, Kaduna State, residents say a Chinese-backed processing plant has not delivered the clinic, roads and reliable water it promised three years ago.

Informal miners, including children, also face criminalisation and attacks by bandits who extort their ore.

“There is no government presence; the bandits are the government,” one miner in Birnin Gwari said.

Experts warn that Nigeria must strengthen governance to avoid repeating the damage oil exploitation caused in the Niger Delta.