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Ajaokuta Steel: Mittal, Indian Businessman Gets $500m Bailout in Nigeria
A company owned by Pramod Mittal, an Indian businessman who was the chairman of Ispat Industries Limited (now JSW Ispat Steel) is reportedly getting almost $500 million after the federal government of Nigeria agreed to pay his company the sum to settle a contract dispute over a deal that a previous administration said was tarnished by fraud.
Source: Bloomberg
Bloomberg reported that Mittal’s firm won a settlement tied to a Soviet-era steel plant that has sucked up more than $7 billion in Nigerian public investment without producing any metal.
Mittal, whose career in the steel industry has been less glittering than Lakshmi Mittal, his better-known sibling — the tycoon behind the €20 billion ($21.2 billion) ArcelorMittal SA conglomerate —, has a string of abandoned factories and a trail of unpaid debts to his name.
Five years ago, his Isle of Man-registered Global Steel Holdings Ltd., or GSH, was put into liquidation over $167 million owed to Moorgate Industries Ltd., a company spun off from one of the world’s biggest steel traders.
As a UK court weighed Moorgate’s request to declare Pramod personally bankrupt three years ago, the London-based Indian national held out the prospect of a payout from the Nigerian state to clear his debt.
The judge was unconvinced at the time, but the settlement subsequently reached with Nigeria last year now looks like the 67-year-old’s best route out of insolvency.
Still, while payments from the Nigerian government have reached GSH’s liquidators, as of Oct. 4, Moorgate had yet to see any of those funds despite having asked for them, court documents show.
With Pramod’s bankruptcy winding its way through English court rooms, a new Nigerian president has taken office, and last month his steel minister said one of the administration’s top priorities is to finally fire up the furnaces of the massive plant at the heart of the younger Mittal’s $496 million compensation.
The government has justified the agreement with a former unit of Pramod’s GSH, which was announced in September 2022, saying it frees the state to pursue its ambitions for the sprawling 24,000-hectare (92 square mile) site.
The settlement — representing about 1.5% of Nigeria’s foreign reserves — is just the latest twist in the saga of the vast Soviet-built factory complex begun 44 years ago.
The project has sucked up more than $7 billion in public investment and has yet to produce any metal.
The story of the Ajaokuta steel mill on the banks of the Niger River 190 kilometers south of the capital, Abuja, is often cited as emblematic of the corruption, poor governance and incompetence that bedevils the West African nation.
The country’s most notorious white elephant still sparks passionate debate over whether it should be written off or revived.
“Ajaokuta has been a black hole that has gobbled up billions of dollars, enriching multiple generations of politicians and foreign enablers,” said Matthew Page, a former Nigeria expert for US intelligence agencies and now an associate fellow at London-based Chatham House.
“This last failed reboot — and the giant price tag that came with it — is a preview of the next failed re-concessioning attempt. At this point, Ajaokuta’s dilapidated machinery is capable of doing only one thing: making public funds disappear.”
Bloomberg claimed that neither Pramod’s representatives nor the spokespeople for the newly elected President Bola Tinubu and Steel Minister Shuaibu Audu responded to requests for comment.
Abubakar Malami, Nigeria’s attorney general from 2015 to earlier this year, on whose watch the settlement was reached, said last year that the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari “rescued the steel industry from interminable and complex disputes as well as saving the taxpayer from humongous damages.”
Pramod’s Involvement
Pramod entered into the Ajaokuta picture in 2004, when then President Olusegun Obasanjo awarded GSH a series of contracts, including an arrangement first to manage and later to buy the steel mill.
Shortly after GSH took over the plant, Solgas Energy Ltd., a small US company, sued it in Texas. Solgas claimed that GSH discussed becoming Solgas’ subcontractor on Ajaokuta before breaching a confidentiality accord and bribing Nigerian officials, including one of Obasanjo’s sons, to “steal the concession.”
While the case was thrown out on jurisdictional grounds, in December 2008 a separate arbitration tribunal ordered Nigeria to pay Solgas $15.2 million in damages for the wrongful termination of the contract — while noting the US firm hadn’t provided evidence to support the corruption allegations.
By then, Umaru Yar’Adua had taken over as Nigeria’s president, and he canceled GSH’s contracts after a panel that his steel development minister set up said the concessions were rife with irregularities. GSH’s claim it had invested $200 million was “a ruse,” the inspectors said.
Rather, the company had used its Nigerian assets to borrow more than $192 million from local banks — funds they “strongly” suspected had been dispatched abroad, they said.
The panel’s full report — never made public but seen by Bloomberg — said rescuing Ajaokuta was beyond the “financial, technical and experiential capabilities” of GSH, which instead had been “systematically cannibalizing, vandalizing and moving valuable equipment” out of the factory.
GSH and its Nigerian unit initiated arbitration proceedings against the government and later entered mediation, which produced last year’s settlement.
Pramod had signed two earlier agreements with the Nigerian government – in 2014 and 2016 – that would have seen his firm retain the right to manage an idled state-owned iron ore mining company but receive no payout.
“I threatened them with criminal proceedings for tax evasion, in addition to other criminal infractions that they had clearly committed,” Mohammed Adoke, a former attorney general who had reached the first of these accords, wrote in his memoir titled “Burden of Service.” “To amicably resolve the issue, I insisted that Global Steel should relinquish (Ajaokuta) for free without any form of compensation.”
Adoke’s successor, Malami, who was the attorney general when the half-a-billion-dollar settlement was struck, modified the terms of the deal to take back the mining firm and award a payment. Malami didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Moorgate’s Case
Even before finalizing the Ajaokuta windfall, Pramod had suggested using the money to pay down the Moorgate debt. In June 2020, as Moorgate sought his bankruptcy, he told Judge Catherine Burton that GSH’s liquidators had failed to account for the “very real prospects of a payment” from Nigeria. He said his Abuja-registered subsidiary would settle the obligation to Moorgate “out of whatever money it receives from the mediation,” according to the decision issued by Burton, who — unpersuaded — ruled in favor of the creditor.
Pramod also tried another way to skirt bankruptcy — using an individual voluntary arrangement, or IVA. He proposed repaying less than £5 million out of £2.5 billion ($3.1 billion) — or 0.2% of what a handful of companies and individuals said they were owed by the businessman.
Moorgate countered that “friendly creditors” who approved this meager offer were either associated with Pramod or relying on loan agreements that were “not true or contemporaneous documents.” A UK judge revoked the IVA last November, expressing “serious doubts” about the authenticity of the paperwork. In the IVA, Pramod said he was worth £117,000, claiming he didn’t control GSH. The family’s London mansion is held through an offshore company whose directors were senior managers at GSH.
Contrary to Pramod’s argument, the court determined he controlled the British Virgin Islands-registered company that owned GSH through his influence over a family trust, with an Isle of Man judge similarly describing him as that firm’s “driving force.”
Pramod made other apparent attempts to distance himself from the group and its subsidiaries. Since April 2021, GSH’s Nigerian unit — the settlement’s beneficiary — has been owned by a Mauritian entity named Luminous Star Ltd., classified as defunct for a decade and with a director who was formerly a GSH employee. While Pramod ceased to be a director of the Nigerian firm in late 2020, his son sits on the board.
In January, Nigeria’s then Information Minister Lai Mohammed said the government had paid $446 million to GSH’s local unit in multiple instalments under the settlement. The law firm hired by the Nigerian subsidiary for the mediation made six transfers from these funds to GSH’s account, totaling £219 million ($272 million) between October 2022 and February 2023, according to reports filed by the company’s liquidators. The law firm, King & Spalding LLP, declined to comment on the rest of the money.
In December and again in March, Moorgate asked to be paid out of funds recovered by GSH’s liquidators, according to a court decision issued last month in the Isle of Man. The liquidators, who estimate that only £40 million is available for creditors once GSH’s potential tax liability and additional costs are taken into consideration, are yet to comply with the request, the judge said on Oct. 4, ruling that Moorgate is entitled to receive part-satisfaction of the debt. Moorgate and GSH’s liquidators declined to comment.
Emulating Lakshmi
Like his brother Lakshmi, who built the world’s second-largest steel producer after splitting from the family business in the mid-1990s and embarking on a legendary deal-making spree, Pramod’s efforts also hinged on international acquisitions. As Lakshmi, the UK’s sixth-richest person, entered the wealth stratosphere, his brother sought to emulate him.
In 2004, Lakshmi’s daughter got married in a lavish ceremony at Versailles, France. Nine years later, the younger Mittal spent £50 million on his daughter’s wedding in Barcelona, according to Moneylife, an Indian media outlet, and Spanish news site Vanitatis. Pramod’s spokespeople didn’t comment on the figure. Just this year, Pramod’s son got married to his long-term partner in a “multi-million pound ceremony” at a five-star UK hotel, the Daily Mail reported.
Pramod’s steel ambitions took him not only to Nigeria, but also to Bosnia, Bulgaria, Libya, Zimbabwe and the Philippines where his companies ran up nearly a billion dollars in debts. During the mid-2000s expansion, GSH agreed to take a loan of up to $35 million from an offshore company owned by his brother Lakshmi, board meeting minutes show. Neither Lakshmi nor the group he heads “have any business connection to the investments” of Pramod, a spokesperson for ArcelorMittal said by email.
In the Philippines, GSH bought a shuttered steel plant in 2004. Within five years, activity at the facility stopped amid a legal battle, with lenders claiming Pramod’s firm had defaulted and the company accusing the banks and liquidator of reneging on an obligation to clear tax arrears. In Bulgaria, where GSH failed to turn around a communist-era steelmaker, a Sofia court put the company owning the mill into bankruptcy in 2008 after it defaulted on a Є325 million bond.
Authorities in Bosnia-Herzegovina arrested Pramod in July 2019 and charged him in January this year with “heading an organized crime group.” Prosecutors alleged that GSH “illegally appropriated” about $11.5 million from a manufacturer of iron-ore smelting coke that the firm took control of in 2003. In a statement following his detention, GSH said the “complaints are categorically false,” according to Mumbai-based news outlet Global Prime News. Pramod was released on bail shortly after being questioned and has not returned to Bosnia. He and his family have initiated arbitration proceedings against the Bosnian state.
Meanwhile, in Nigeria, the attachment of the country’s leaders to the Ajaokuta plant shows no sign of abating, even though critics including the World Bank have called the facility obsolete. President Tinubu pledged during his election campaign to get the steel mill up and running. His predecessor’s government, which left office in May, congratulated itself not only for liberating Ajaokuta from Pramod’s legal claim but also securing it for a settlement significantly smaller than the $5.3 billion that GSH had apparently demanded.
Just last month, touting the potential of the complex to one day create half a million jobs, Vice President Kashim Shettima said the “Ajaokuta plant can be a game changer for the Nigerian nation.”
Source: Bloomberg L.P except headlines and add ons
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London Strengthens Global Investment Ties with Africa @ First Ever London-Africa Business Summit
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has today hosted City Hall’s first ever London-Africa business summit, bringing together 200 business and political leaders from across the continent to strengthen trade and investment ties between London and Africa.
Held in the heart of the City of London, the summit included the Minister of Trade for Agribusiness and Industry in Ghana and representatives from SOAS, the Nigerian Exchange Group, Ventures 54 and London Africa Network to showcase London as the global city of choice for African companies looking to expand internationally and attract investment.
The Mayor announced the summit during his 2025 trade mission to Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa, where he led a delegation to promote London as a global destination for investment. Since the visit, African businesses have invested more than £30 million into London through foreign direct investment.
117 African organisations are listed on the London Stock Exchange, spanning sectors from telecoms and finance to energy and technology. Companies include telecoms giant Airtel Africa and energy supplier Seplat Energy. By comparison, fewer than 20 African organizations are listed on the New York Stock Exchange, underlining London’s deep economic and cultural links with the continent.
The summit builds on growing economic momentum between the UK and Africa. Total UK-Africa trade reached approximately £52 billion in 2025 despite continued global economic uncertainty, while UK exports to Africa increased to nearly £26.2 billion, reflecting rising demand for UK goods and services across African markets.
Africa is increasingly recognised as one of the world’s most important long-term growth regions, driven by rapid urbanisation, infrastructure investment, population growth and expanding consumer markets.
The UK remains among Africa’s top 10 supplying markets and continues to strengthen trade relationships through agreements covering 18 African countries. There are also huge community links between the UK and Africa. The UK has the second largest Nigerian diaspora population, second only to the US, with an estimated 215,000 Nigerians living here.
The Mayor’s London Growth Plan identified the need to attract more foreign direct investment to help grow London’s economy by £107 billion by 2035 and support the creation of 150,000 good jobs by 2028. London continues to lead as the top destination for African foreign direct investment in Europe and the US, ranking second globally outside Africa behind only Dubai.
The summit also highlighted major opportunities for collaboration across sectors, including financial services, digital technology, education, healthcare, energy transition, infrastructure and the creative industries, with London well positioned to deepen its role as a strategic trade and investment partner for African markets.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “I am proud to host City Hall’s first ever London-Africa business Summit, bringing together investors, entrepreneurs and businesses to showcase London as the best city in the world for African companies to expand internationally and attract investment.
“With more African companies listed on the London Stock Exchange than any other exchange, it is one of the most globally important growth regions. I am delighted that my African trade mission last year has encouraged both inward investment and outward expansion, creating jobs and further strengthening the links between us. I look forward to more opportunities developing from this Summit as we continue to build a better, more prosperous London for everyone.”
Mr. Mark Smithson, Country Director, UK Department for Business and Trade, Nigeria, and Anglo West Africa said: “The London-Africa Business Forum has brought together ambition, capital and creativity, reinforcing London’s role as a global gateway for African enterprise.
“As we look to the next chapter, we are deepening partnerships that drive sustainable growth, shared prosperity and long-term opportunity across both regions. In Nigeria, we are working closely with key partners, businesses and investors to unlock investment, create jobs and deliver tangible economic outcomes.”
Soren Nikolajsen, Managing Director, Industry Engagement Defence and Trade at Natwest said: “London remains one of the world’s leading destinations for international investment, underpinned by its deep financial expertise and global connectivity. Bringing together investors from across Africa in this way is a valuable opportunity to strengthen relationships, showcase the breadth of opportunity here, and support long-term, mutually beneficial growth.”
Olukorede (K.O.) Adenowo, Chief Executive Officer, FirstBank UK, said: “FirstBank UK is proud to support the strengthening of the Africa–UK corridor, where growing demand for capital and expertise continues to drive cross-border opportunity. London remains a powerful gateway for African businesses seeking to scale internationally, while Africa offers compelling long-term investment potential.
“At FirstBank UK, we are focused on supporting cross-border trade and facilitating capital flows by connecting clients to global markets and structuring bankable opportunities. Through stronger collaboration, we can unlock greater investment and deliver sustainable growth across both regions.”
Dylan Martin, Chief Executive Officer of Teybridge Capital said: “Our expansion in London marks an important milestone for Teybridge Capital Europe and reflects the strength of our growth in the UK market. With over 60 per cent of our client base in the UK, this was a natural step in deepening our presence on the ground and investing in a high-performance, locally based team to support our next phase of growth.”
The Federal Government has received a major boost in its drive to strengthen teacher education and digital learning, as the Government of Japan, through the UNESCO International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa (IICBA), donated ICT equipment and learning materials to 15 teacher training institutions across Nigeria.
Speaking at the official handover ceremony held at the Federal Ministry of Education in Abuja, the Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Said Ahmad, described the intervention as a significant contribution to the country’s efforts to improve teacher quality, digital literacy and inclusive education.
She said the donation forms part of a regional initiative launched in 2024 by UNESCO-IICBA, the Government of Japan and the African Union to strengthen teacher training and promote continuous access to safe, quality education for girls in West Africa.
According to the minister, the project, which covers Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Mali and Mauritania, aligns with the Federal Ministry of Education’s priorities under the Renewed Hope Agenda, particularly in the areas of equity, quality education, digital transformation and inclusion.
“Teachers remain the backbone of every education system. No education reform can succeed without well-trained, motivated and digitally empowered teachers,” Ahmad said, noting that the equipment would modernise teacher training institutions and improve access to digital learning resources.
The beneficiaries comprise 15 federal and state colleges of education spread across Nigeria’s six geo-political zones, including the Federal College of Education, Kontagora; Federal College of Education, Zaria; Federal College of Education (Technical), Gombe; Federal College of Education, Yola; Federal College of Education (Technical), Asaba; Federal College of Education (Special), Oyo.
Others are Federal College of Education (Technical), Umunze; College of Education, Zuba, FCT; Isaac Jasper Boro College of Education; Enugu State College of Education (Technical); Sa’adatu Rimi College of Education, Kano; Adamu Augie College of Education, Argungu; Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto; Adamawa State College of Education, Hong and Taraba State College of Education, Zing.
The donated items include 65 laptop computers, 71 tablets, four desktop computers, five interactive smart boards, 19 all-in-one desktop computers, 14 projectors, 15 printers and 15 backup hard drives.
Ahmad said the facilities would enhance both pre-service and in-service teacher training by promoting innovation, digital competence and learner-centred teaching approaches, while preparing educators for the demands of a technology-driven world.
The event also featured a national consultation on school safety and infrastructure security, with participants discussing strategies for creating safer and more inclusive learning environments.
The minister stressed that safe schools remain critical to achieving quality education, particularly for girls and other vulnerable learners, adding that the ministry would continue to prioritise policies and programmes aimed at strengthening school security.
She further highlighted the ministry’s focus on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), girl-child education, quality assurance, data management and digital transformation as key pillars for improving educational outcomes nationwide.
Ahmad also disclosed plans to implement new interventions aimed at empowering female teachers and school leaders in crisis situations through mobile-based learning platforms, as well as programmes designed to integrate out-of-school children into formal education.
She commended UNESCO-IICBA, the Government of Japan, the African Union and other development partners for supporting teacher education in Nigeria and urged beneficiary institutions to utilise the equipment responsibly to improve learning outcomes and build a more resilient education system.
“The equipment will enhance digital literacy among our pre-service teachers and boost the attainment of education goals in Nigeria,” she said.
In their separate remarks, the Director of the UNESCO International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa (IICBA), Dr. Quentin Wodon, and the Chargé d’Affaires of the Embassy of Japan in Nigeria, Hitoshi Kozaki, reaffirmed their commitment to supporting efforts aimed at improving teacher education and expanding access to quality learning opportunities across Nigeria and the West African region.
They noted that the donation of ICT equipment to the beneficiary colleges of education reflects the shared commitment of UNESCO, the Government of Japan and their partners to strengthening the capacity of teacher training institutions, particularly in the area of digital learning.
According to them, equipping teachers with modern technological skills is critical to improving learning outcomes and ensuring that education systems are responsive to the demands of the 21st century.
African electric vehicle (EV) platform Spiro has raised $215 million in equity to scale electric mobility and energy infrastructure across the continent.
The funding is backed by institutional investors including Impact Fund Denmark and Equitane.
The investment will accelerate the expansion of Spiro’s battery-swapping network, industrial footprint and next-generation EV infrastructure across high-growth African markets, the company said.
This funding comes as economies in the region aim to reduce dependence on imported fuel, reinforce energy and industrial sovereignty, and modernise urban transport systems.
Driven by rising fuel costs, growing demand for affordable transportation and increasing policy support for clean energy, investors are backing scalable EV platforms poised to support Africa’s next phase of urban and industrial growth.
Building on support from long-standing institutional partners such as the Fund for Export Development in Africa, Spiro’s latest equity round draws capital from Europe and Africa, reflecting growing global confidence in scalable infrastructure-led business models in emerging markets.
With operations in seven African countries—Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Togo, Benin, Nigeria and Cameroon—and plans to expand local production and enter new markets such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia, Spiro is building one of Africa’s most advanced EV and battery-swapping ecosystems.
Its industrial footprint includes manufacturing plants in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, alongside a battery recycling facility in Nigeria.
“This past year marked a defining strategic milestone for Spiro. Across seven active markets, our deployment of 100,000 electric vehicles and 2,500 smart-swap stations has made sustainable mobility an affordable, everyday reality,” said Gagan Gupta, founder of Spiro and chairman of Equitane.
“Spiro has become a major driver of local industrialisation, value creation and manufacturing across African markets, providing 6,000 sustainable direct and indirect jobs. Supported by our global investors, we are entering our next growth chapter to deliver clean, cost-effective energy and transport alternatives to millions of riders across the continent.”
Lars Bo Bertram, CEO of Impact Fund Denmark, added: “We are investing in Spiro and bringing Danish pension capital into one of Africa’s most promising growth markets because we see potential for significant commercial growth in Spiro and electric mobility across Africa, as well as measurable climate impact. That is exactly the type of investment we want to make.”
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