FG raises committee to revive Ajaokuta Steel firm, set up two others

FG raises committee to revive Ajaokuta Steel firm, set up two others

 

The Federal Government has commenced a fresh effort for the revival of the Ajaokuta Steel Mill with the commission of an inter-ministerial committee for this purpose.

The committee is also saddled with the responsibility of facilitating the establishment of two other steel development firms in the country.

Minister of Steel Development, Shauibu Audu, made this known to journalists at the State House, Abuja, on Thursday.

He spoke after he and the Minister of Defence, Abubakar Badaru, met with President Bola Tinubu at the State House.

According to him, members of the committee are the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Doris Uzoka, Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, the Minister of Defence, Muhammadu Badaru, and the Minister of Steel Development, Shuaibu Audu.

He said, besides the task of sourcing funding for the revitalisation of the moribund Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited, the committee would also work to actualise the setting up of a Chinese company, Lu’an Steel Holding Group, as well as finding a location for a proposed steel plant, Jindal Steel.

Audu said the projects could create not less than 500,000 jobs.

Already, he said two members of the committee, the Minister of Defence and himself, had met with the Lu’an Steel Company and agreed to set up a new steel plant in Nigeria.

He said the company would deploy an advanced team to Nigeria after the Chinese New Year by the end of February 2024.

He said, “We were in China on the 1st of January 2024. We were there till the 8th of January and met with the Lu’an Steel Company, which is one of the largest steel companies in China, and the top 20 steel companies in China. They produce about 20 million metric tons of steel per annum.

“We had very meaningful discussions with them, the Minister of Defense and I, and they agreed and made a commitment to set up a new steel plant in Nigeria, where thousands of jobs would be created, and they would invest billions of dollars in foreign direct investments into Nigeria.”

The minister also disclosed that reviving the entire Ajaokua Steel plant would cost Nigeria between $2 million and $5 million while restarting the living steel section of the mill will cost the nation about N35 billion.

Audu said President Tinubu approved in the late 2023 to raise funds locally to restart and rebuild the light steel mill of the Ajaokuta Steel plant to be able to produce iron rods.

He said the iron rods would be used by the Ministry of Works to drive the plans to construct 30,000 kilometres of roads across Nigeria.

He further disclosed that the light steel mill would produce about 400,000 tons out of the seven million iron rods needed by the Federal Ministry of Works.