How Sabi Is Digitising Africa’s Lithium Commerce, One Ton At A Time

Every month, Nigerian B2B digital commerce agency Sabi facilitates the movement of higher than 100,000 tons of lithium—a mineral in extreme demand from {the electrical} vehicle commerce— all through West Africa, ranking among the many many space’s prime 5 enablers of lithium exports. By digitising and formalising a traditionally opaque and informal commerce system, Sab is enabling informal retail retailers to digitise their operations, streamline inventory administration, and be part of with suppliers.

Africa holds virtually 30 % of the world’s important mineral reserves, from cobalt and lithium to manganese and unusual earths, however captures solely a fraction of their value — between 10% to twenty%. A few years of under-regulation, fragmented present chains, and illicit commerce have saved the continent from realising its full mining potential. 

Sabi’s technology-driven model is altering that by setting up digital infrastructure that brings traceability, transparency, and compliance to Africa’s commodity markets, starting with the fast-growing lithium commerce.

From market networks to mineral present chains

Primarily based in 2020 by Anu Adedoyin Adasolum and Ademola (“Demmy”) Adesina, Sabi began as an offshoot of Rensource, an affect distribution enterprise serving Nigeria’s informal markets. When COVID-19 disrupted commerce, the company repurposed its internal logistics and value devices to help retailers hold afloat all through lockdowns.

That pivot superior proper right into a full-fledged B2B platform enabling informal firms to entry present, logistics, and financial suppliers, an working system for African retailers. 

“We weren’t a retail e-commerce platform like Jumia or Konga,” Adasolum knowledgeable TechCabal. “We’ve been a business-to-business service platform curating various suppliers important to retailers’ progress.”

After gaining traction in sectors like Fast-Transferring Shopper Gadgets (FMCG), electronics, and agriculture, Sabi set its sights on Africa’s subsequent big industrial frontier: minerals.

“We realised that minerals have been the place Africa may make the biggest distinction globally,” says Adasolum. “The world was altering geopolitically, and minerals have been turning into central to that change. We seen an opportunity to help the continent assemble credibility and traceability in mineral present chains.”

A digital passport for every 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 verify and observe every cargo of mineral from mine to export, documenting origin, top quality, and compliance with native and worldwide necessities.

“Minerals aren’t like accomplished gadgets; each factor relies upon upon top quality and traceability,” Adasolum explains. “Our platform ensures shoppers know exactly the place provides come from and the best way they’ve been produced. It’s an infinite shift from the instances of opaque transactions.”

Each cargo in TRACE carries a verified “mineral passport,” creating an auditable chain of custody that addresses one in all Africa’s biggest reputational factors — the notion of illegal or unethical mining. “Traceability is the reply,” Adasolum says. “Every producer is verified, web sites are audited, and every movement of material is logged. That diploma of transparency makes it virtually unattainable for unhealthy practices to go unnoticed.”

Transferring 100,000 tons of Lithium month-to-month

Sabi’s mineral group has grown rapidly, considerably inside the lithium commerce. The company now facilitates roughly 100,000 tons of lithium exports month-to-month from West Africa, as compared with spherical 50,000 tons it did in March 2025, inserting it among the many many prime 5 enablers of lithium shipments inside the space.

Nonetheless for Sabi, the measure of success isn’t amount alone. “Standard metrics like GMV don’t mirror what we’re actually setting up,” Adasolum notes. “We observe how rather a lot verified supplies we switch, what variety of suppliers we stock into compliance, and what variety of transactions can stand as much as world audits. That’s the precise sign of progress.”

By TRACE, Sabi aggregates and verifies present from small and mid-scale miners who would in every other case be shut out of worldwide markets. “If a miner can solely produce 50 tons, nevertheless a purchaser desires 1,000, we coordinate, verify, and combination manufacturing,” Adasolum explains. “That’s how we help African producers entry world alternate options.”

Developing perception and world entry for African miners

Sabi’s system goes previous compliance; it’s additionally an enabler for African producers who want to participate inside the world value chain. Many small and mid-scale miners all through Africa wrestle to meet worldwide shoppers’ requires for fixed quantity and top quality. Sabi helps bridge that gap by coordinating various producers, offering technical assist, and standardising processes all through its group.

“We work with producers all through Nigeria and Southern Africa to ensure they meet top quality and quantity requirements,” Adasolum says.

The company’s push aligns with broader efforts by Nigeria and completely different African governments to reform and modernise their mining sectors. In 2024, Nigeria’s Ministry of Robust Minerals Enchancment revoked virtually 1,000 inactive mining titles and rolled out new insurance coverage insurance policies to attract extreme merchants. By September 2025, authorities launched plans to revoke over 4,700 additional licences for non-payment of renewal expenses, underscoring a renewed consider accountability and sector effectivity. 

The nation hosts over 40 commercially viable minerals, along with gold, bitumen, lithium, and iron ore. However the mining sector nonetheless contributes decrease than one % to Nigeria’s GDP, a stark reminder of untapped potential.

By introducing traceability know-how and compliance devices, Sabi permits producers to align with native mining legal guidelines and world necessities resembling these utilized by the EU, U.S., and Asia.  As an illustration, the Mining Regulatory Readability Act of 2025 inside the US clarifies that mining assist actions, resembling waste storage and processing can legally perform on public lands with out economically treasured minerals and establishes the Abandoned Hardrock Mine Fund to scrub up legacy mining web sites, restoring regulatory certainty to promote important mineral manufacturing and supply chain security.

“Every nation has its licencing requirements, nevertheless world shoppers even have frameworks they should adjust to,” Adasolum notes. “What we’ve executed is simplify that course of; whilst you sign as a lot as our system, you adjust to a clear roadmap that helps you meet every nationwide and worldwide necessities over time.”

From information to progress

Previous software program program, Sabi’s model integrates technical advisory and on-ground functionality setting up. The company helps miners with teaching in top quality administration, processing, and price addition, often bringing in metallurgists and engineers to advise on manufacturing upgrades. In some situations, miners who started with handbook devices have expanded to mechanised operations, rising effectivity and output.

“There are communities that, two years previously, had no entry to world contracts,” Adasolum says. “As we communicate, they’re producing and incomes from supplying worldwide producers. That’s progress in precise time.”

Sabi’s know-how moreover improves the credibility of African minerals on the worldwide stage, an necessary profit as worldwide areas compete for present security inside the race to decarbonise their economies. China nonetheless dominates world refining and midstream processing, nevertheless Western nations are diversifying present chains by investing in Africa. Initiatives like Sabi’s may make the continent additional participating for accountable sourcing and native beneficiation.

“The biggest different for Africa lies in traceability,” says Adasolum. “As quickly as provenance is clear, African producers can compete globally. It’s what will put us on the world stage.”

Addressing infrastructure gaps

Sabi operates in a fancy ambiance shaped by infrastructure gaps, foreign exchange volatility, and regulatory pink tape. “You might’t do world commerce in Africa with out coping with abroad commerce challenges,” Adasolum admits. “Nonetheless we work fastidiously with financial institutions to deal with these risks and guarantee our companions can commerce simply.”

One different downside is scaling the adoption of the traceability platform all through various worldwide areas. “It’s a distribution downside,” she says. “We’re pioneers on this home, and rolling out all through varied areas takes time and consists of completely completely different languages, authorized tips, and logistics.” Nonetheless, Sabi is growing steadily, with operations in in any case six worldwide areas: Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and plans to develop its mineral portfolio extra.

On the protection entrance, Adasolum believes governments are transferring in the most effective path. “A whole lot of the worldwide areas we work in are determined to make mining work for his or her of us,” she says. “The key is stability and openness to recommendations. We’re seeing additional engagement between personal and non-private avid gamers, and that’s encouraging.”

“Our ambition is easy,” Adasolum concludes. “We have to protected present and plug it into the most effective alternate options; to make sure that Africa’s property are traded responsibly, traceably, and profitably for everyone involved. This isn’t practically minerals. It’s about setting up strategies that allow Africa play on the best diploma.”