The Director General of the Nigeria–China Strategic Partnership (NCSP), Joseph Tegbe, has supported the Inner Galaxy Steel Company’s $550 million expansion plan to establish a new plant in Ogun State with a projected annual output of 2 million metric tons (MMT).

The announcement came during an official visit by Tegbe to Inner Galaxy’s flagship facility in Abia State . Currently producing about 600,000 metric tons annually, the company believes operational enhancements could lift capacity at the Abia site to 1 MMT per year. The Ogun State facility will be developed in phases, utilising locally available iron ore, positioning it as a strategic contributor to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s goal of achieving 10 MMT in national steel production annually. The funding structure for the new project allocates $450 million from Chinese partners and Financial institution and $100 million from Nigerian partners and institution.

The DG’s visit also highlighted the rise of a broader industrial cluster around Inner Galaxy’s Abia operations. The cluster includes Neway Power Technology Company Ltd, which manufactures roughly 4 million car batteries annually; Jiu Xing Integrity Industries Limited, which fabricates and assembles trailers from CKD and SKD kits; and Starich Recycle Technologies Company Limited, a plastics recycler and manufacturer.

Industry analysts see the Inner Galaxy expansion as a potential catalyst for foreign direct investment inflows, advanced technology transfer, and large-scale job creation within Nigeria’s steel value chain. If delivered on schedule, the Ogun State plant would represent one of the single largest boosts to Nigeria’s steel capacity in decades, helping to close the domestic supply gap, reduce reliance on imports, and strengthen competitiveness in regional infrastructure and manufacturing markets.

According to the NCSP DG, the significance of this investment “extends beyond steel.”

The Sun Nigeria