The Unlikely Startups Quietly Powering Nigeria’s New Mining Boom

In 2021, Lagos-based Sabi was deep in the messy business of moving flour, soap, and biscuits from producers to thousands of informal shopkeepers. Its software tracked inventory and matched wholesalers with corner stores, hardly the stuff of hard hats.

Then, a quiet knock came from an unexpected door. Small-scale mineral traders, grappling with the same market-access problems as corner shop owners, wanted to know if Sabi’s platform could help them, too.

Within two years, the company that once optimised grocery deliveries was signing supply deals with global lithium processors, guaranteeing them steady flows from miners scattered across Nigeria.

“It wasn’t planned, but it wasn’t accidental either,” a Sabi spokesperson told WT. “Our platform for agricultural trade already had traceability, compliance, and finance capabilities. When mineral producers asked if we could support them, especially in high-stakes categories like tungsten and antimony, we were ready.”

Today, Sabi’s TRACE platform captures GPS coordinates, labour practices, and environmental data from mine sites; follows each shipment from pit to port; and verifies that every kilogram meets the compliance standards of buyers in the US and Europe. In one market alone, it now moves more than 20,000 metric tons of minerals monthly.

It’s not alone. Just 750km away in Abuja, out of a 15,000sq-ft factory opened last year, Terrahaptix, a year-old drone manufacturer founded by two 20-something-year-olds, has quietly made mining its biggest customer segment.

Its fleet of aerial and ground drones surveys mine sites, monitors equipment, and scans for mineral deposits in hard-to-reach areas. The company’s Artemis OS, built in-house, lets the drones fly autonomously and stream real-time data to operators.