Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State has urged local and international investors to take advantage of the vast investment opportunities available in Nasarawa State, describing the state as a credible partner for Lagos and other commercial hubs in the country.
A statement signed by Ali Abare media aide to the Governor said Governor Sule spoke on Monday at the Invest in Lagos Summit 3.0, themed Lagos Business Gateway to Africa, which was declared open by Vice President Kashim Shettima in Lagos.
The Governor, who also chairs the North Central Governors Forum, participated in a strategic panel session alongside other governors to showcase the investment potentials of their respective states.
Tracing his journey from the organised private sector to governance, Governor Sule said he came into office in 2019 armed with hands-on experience from working with multinational oil companies in Houston, Texas, managing African Petroleum for six years as its Managing Director, and serving as Group Managing Director of the Dangote Group, where he operated across eleven countries with exposure to cement and agriculture investments.
He said these experiences shaped his understanding of what investors truly needed and informed the development blueprint he brought to Nasarawa State.
The Governor told investors that on assumption of office, his administration commissioned a comprehensive document to identify the state’s areas of comparative advantage rather than make blanket promises across every sector.
That exercise, he said, produced a focused investment strategy anchored on solid minerals, agriculture, renewable energy, healthcare, and education, and led to the establishment of a one-stop investment company to ease the process of doing business in the state.
On solid minerals, Governor Sule said his administration enacted an executive order backed by law requiring that any company mining in Nasarawa State must also process its output within the state.
That policy, he said, had produced the biggest lithium processing plant in the country, with a second and larger plant processing 6,000 tons per day awaiting commissioning by the President.
He disclosed that a Chinese company already processing lithium concentrate from Nasarawa State had invited him to China on July 28 to commission a battery manufacturing plant, and that he intended to use the occasion to invite the company to establish a second-stage processing facility in Nasarawa State.
Governor Sule said the administration’s investment drive had attracted over 2.3 billion dollars in foreign and domestic investment across solid minerals, agriculture, and real estate since 2019.
He added that the state’s third investment summit, held last month, was fully sponsored by private investors without a single naira from the state government, which he said was proof that investor confidence in Nasarawa had reached a new level.
On agriculture, the Governor said Nasarawa State was home to the largest rice operation and the Dangote Sugar company’s 68,000-hectare sugarcane farm, which he described as larger than Equatorial Guinea and Victoria Island combined.
He called on Lagos and other states to see Nasarawa not as a competitor but as a partner, noting that the land mass and agricultural capacity of Nasarawa could serve as the production base for the commercial appetite of states like Lagos.
Speaking on revenue, Governor Sule said internally generated revenue had grown from seven billion naira annually when he took office in 2019 to approximately 39 billion naira in 2025, with the administration targeting 52 billion naira.
He attributed a significant part of this growth to President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms, which he said had freed up resources for states to fund development without resorting to bank borrowing.
The Governor thanked his host, Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, for personally reaching out to ensure his attendance at the summit, and commended Vice President Shettima for his continued support of Nasarawa State’s development agenda.
