FACT-CHECK: Claim that Nigeria has the Biggest Lithium Mining Facility in Africa is False!
BY: Sonaike Peter
Claim:
Nigeria has emerged as the country with the biggest lithium mining facility in Africa.
Verdict:
False! Zimbabwe is currently Africa’s leading lithium producer, while Nigeria is recognized to have acquired the biggest lithium mining facility only in West Africa.
Full Text:
Abdullahi Sule, the Governor of Nasarawa State, Nigeria, claimed that Nigeria has acquired the biggest lithium mining facility in the Africa continent.
Sule made the claim during a press briefing held in Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital.
Commending the Bola Tinubu-led administration and the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, the governor claimed that Nigeria had emerged as the continent’s leading lithium mining facility.
“He gave me the support we needed and that is why we were able to build not only the biggest lithium facility in Nigeria but the biggest in Africa,” Governor Abdullah Sule claimed while praising the Minister of Solid Mineral Development, Dele Alake.
Verification:
Findings by FactCheck Africa revealed that the claim is false.
Available data and recent reports on Africa’s lithium industry identify Zimbabwe as the continent’s leading lithium producer, not Nigeria.
FactCheck Africa also gathered that Zimbabwe has experienced a rapid expansion of its lithium-mining industry in recent years, driven largely by investments from Chinese mining companies.
According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), Zimbabwe was the world’s fourth-largest lithium producer in 2024, excluding the United States, accounting for 9.0 per cent of global lithium production.
In 2025, Zimbabwe exported approximately 1.128 million metric tonnes of lithium-bearing spodumene concentrate, up 11 per cent from 1.014 million tonnes in 2024, according to official data from the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ) reported by Reuters.
The country’s lithium industry has continued to expand. In April 2026, Reuters reported that Zimbabwe’s lithium sector had reached another milestone with the export of lithium sulphate from a processing plant operated by Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt.
Nigeria, on the other hand, has substantial lithium resources which has attracted increasing investment into lithium exploration, mining and processing.
In July 2026, President Bola Tinubu commissioned a lithium mining and processing plant in Endo, Nasarawa State, with a reported processing capacity of 6,000 metric tonnes per day.
However, there is no credible report substantiating the claim that Nigeria has the largest lithium facility in Africa continent, although it is recognized to own the biggest lithium mining facility only in West Africa.
Conclusion:
The claim made by the Governor of the Nasarawa State, Abdullah Sule, that Nigeria has the largest lithium mining facility is false and misleading.
Although Nigeria is recognized to have the biggest lithium mining facility in West Africa, no available evidence supports the claim that Nigeria is currently Africa’s largest lithium-mining-producing country. Zimbabwe remains Africa’s leading lithium producer.
