Each month, Nigerian B2B digital commerce firm Sabi facilitates the motion of greater than 100,000 tons of lithium—a mineral in excessive demand from the electrical automobile trade— throughout West Africa, rating among the many area’s prime 5 enablers of lithium exports. By digitising and formalising a historically opaque and casual commerce system, Sab is enabling casual retail retailers to digitise their operations, streamline stock administration, and join with suppliers.
Africa holds practically 30 % of the world’s essential mineral reserves, from cobalt and lithium to manganese and uncommon earths, but captures solely a fraction of their worth — between 10% to twenty%. Many years of under-regulation, fragmented provide chains, and illicit commerce have saved the continent from realising its full mining potential.
Sabi’s technology-driven mannequin is altering that by constructing digital infrastructure that brings traceability, transparency, and compliance to Africa’s commodity markets, beginning with the fast-growing lithium commerce.
From market networks to mineral provide chains
Based in 2020 by Anu Adedoyin Adasolum and Ademola (“Demmy”) Adesina, Sabi started as an offshoot of Rensource, an influence distribution enterprise serving Nigeria’s casual markets. When COVID-19 disrupted commerce, the corporate repurposed its inner logistics and cost instruments to assist retailers keep afloat throughout lockdowns.
That pivot advanced right into a full-fledged B2B platform enabling casual companies to entry provide, logistics, and monetary providers, an working system for African retailers.
“We weren’t a retail e-commerce platform like Jumia or Konga,” Adasolum informed TechCabal. “We have been a business-to-business service platform curating a number of providers essential to retailers’ progress.”
After gaining traction in sectors like Quick-Transferring Client Items (FMCG), electronics, and agriculture, Sabi set its sights on Africa’s subsequent huge industrial frontier: minerals.
“We realised that minerals have been the place Africa might make the largest distinction globally,” says Adasolum. “The world was altering geopolitically, and minerals have been turning into central to that change. We noticed a chance to assist the continent construct credibility and traceability in mineral provide chains.”
A digital passport for each mineral
On the core of Sabi’s mineral operations is TRACE, translated as “Know-how Rails for African Commodities Change.” TRACE makes use of digital passports to confirm and observe each cargo of mineral from mine to export, documenting origin, high quality, and compliance with native and worldwide requirements.
“Minerals aren’t like completed items; every thing depends upon high quality and traceability,” Adasolum explains. “Our platform ensures consumers know precisely the place supplies come from and the way they have been produced. It’s an enormous shift from the times of opaque transactions.”
Every cargo in TRACE carries a verified “mineral passport,” creating an auditable chain of custody that addresses one in every of Africa’s greatest reputational points — the notion of unlawful or unethical mining. “Traceability is the answer,” Adasolum says. “Each producer is verified, websites are audited, and each motion of fabric is logged. That degree of transparency makes it practically unattainable for unhealthy practices to go unnoticed.”
Transferring 100,000 tons of Lithium month-to-month
Sabi’s mineral community has grown quickly, significantly within the lithium commerce. The corporate now facilitates roughly 100,000 tons of lithium exports month-to-month from West Africa, in comparison with round 50,000 tons it did in March 2025, inserting it among the many prime 5 enablers of lithium shipments within the area.
However for Sabi, the measure of success isn’t quantity alone. “Conventional metrics like GMV don’t mirror what we’re really constructing,” Adasolum notes. “We observe how a lot verified materials we transfer, what number of suppliers we carry into compliance, and what number of transactions can stand up to world audits. That’s the actual signal of progress.”
By TRACE, Sabi aggregates and verifies provide from small and mid-scale miners who would in any other case be shut out of worldwide markets. “If a miner can solely produce 50 tons, however a purchaser wants 1,000, we coordinate, confirm, and mixture manufacturing,” Adasolum explains. “That’s how we assist African producers entry world alternatives.”
Constructing belief and world entry for African miners
Sabi’s system goes past compliance; it’s also an enabler for African producers who need to take part within the world worth chain. Many small and mid-scale miners throughout Africa wrestle to fulfill worldwide consumers’ calls for for constant amount and high quality. Sabi helps bridge that hole by coordinating a number of producers, providing technical help, and standardising processes throughout its community.
“We work with producers throughout Nigeria and Southern Africa to make sure they meet high quality and amount necessities,” Adasolum says.
The corporate’s push aligns with broader efforts by Nigeria and different African governments to reform and modernise their mining sectors. In 2024, Nigeria’s Ministry of Strong Minerals Improvement revoked practically 1,000 inactive mining titles and rolled out new insurance policies to draw severe traders. By September 2025, authorities introduced plans to revoke over 4,700 further licences for non-payment of renewal charges, underscoring a renewed concentrate on accountability and sector effectivity.
The nation hosts over 40 commercially viable minerals, together with gold, bitumen, lithium, and iron ore. But the mining sector nonetheless contributes lower than one % to Nigeria’s GDP, a stark reminder of untapped potential.
By introducing traceability know-how and compliance instruments, Sabi permits producers to align with native mining laws and world requirements resembling these utilized by the EU, U.S., and Asia. For instance, the Mining Regulatory Readability Act of 2025 within the US clarifies that mining help actions, resembling waste storage and processing can legally function on public lands with out economically precious minerals and establishes the Deserted Hardrock Mine Fund to wash up legacy mining websites, restoring regulatory certainty to advertise essential mineral manufacturing and provide chain safety.
“Each nation has its licencing necessities, however world consumers even have frameworks they need to comply with,” Adasolum notes. “What we’ve executed is simplify that course of; while you signal as much as our system, you comply with a transparent roadmap that helps you meet each nationwide and worldwide requirements over time.”
From knowledge to growth
Past software program, Sabi’s mannequin integrates technical advisory and on-ground capability constructing. The corporate helps miners with coaching in high quality management, processing, and worth addition, usually bringing in metallurgists and engineers to advise on manufacturing upgrades. In some instances, miners who began with handbook instruments have expanded to mechanised operations, rising effectivity and output.
“There are communities that, two years in the past, had no entry to world contracts,” Adasolum says. “As we speak, they’re producing and incomes from supplying worldwide producers. That’s growth in actual time.”
Sabi’s know-how additionally improves the credibility of African minerals on the worldwide stage, an important benefit as international locations compete for provide safety within the race to decarbonise their economies. China nonetheless dominates world refining and midstream processing, however Western nations are diversifying provide chains by investing in Africa. Initiatives like Sabi’s might make the continent extra engaging for accountable sourcing and native beneficiation.
“The largest alternative for Africa lies in traceability,” says Adasolum. “As soon as provenance is evident, African producers can compete globally. It’s what is going to put us on the world stage.”
Addressing infrastructure gaps
Sabi operates in a posh atmosphere formed by infrastructure gaps, forex volatility, and regulatory pink tape. “You may’t do world commerce in Africa with out dealing with overseas trade challenges,” Adasolum admits. “However we work carefully with monetary establishments to handle these dangers and ensure our companions can commerce easily.”
One other problem is scaling the adoption of the traceability platform throughout a number of international locations. “It’s a distribution drawback,” she says. “We’re pioneers on this house, and rolling out throughout various areas takes time and includes totally different languages, legal guidelines, and logistics.” Nonetheless, Sabi is increasing steadily, with operations in at the least six international locations: Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and plans to develop its mineral portfolio additional.
On the coverage entrance, Adasolum believes governments are transferring in the best path. “A lot of the international locations we work in are desperate to make mining work for his or her folks,” she says. “The secret is stability and openness to suggestions. We’re seeing extra engagement between private and non-private gamers, and that’s encouraging.”
“Our ambition is straightforward,” Adasolum concludes. “We need to safe provide and plug it into the best alternatives; to ensure that Africa’s assets are traded responsibly, traceably, and profitably for everybody concerned. This isn’t nearly minerals. It’s about constructing methods that permit Africa play on the highest degree.”
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