Three Russian firms, eight others bid for Ajaokuta steel company

Eleven companies are currently bidding for the concession of the Ajaokuta steel company, Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, has said.

He said three of the bidders are Russian firms.

Adegbite disclosed this at the presentation of the achievements of his ministry during the 9th edition of President Muhammadu Buhari’s scorecard series,  held in Abuja on Thursday.

The minister said the Buhari government had been able to resolve all contending legal issues with the steel company and was in the concession process.

He also said the major issue with the company was the concession that was done in 2005 by former president Olusegun Obasanjo to Global Steel, which resulted in litigation and a demand of $7 billion by the company.

“One of the major albatross on Ajaokuta was the concession that occurred under former President Olusegun Obasanjo to Messers Global Steel Industries,” he said.

“Things went sour and they took us to court. The court case went on for about 12 years, but thanks to a patriotic Nigerian lawyer in the United Kingdom who handled the case very effectively.

“Global steel came with a demand of $7 billion, but our lawyer was able to puncture holes in their case, and at the end, they had to settle for $496 million.”

According to Adegbite, the judgement was favourable to Nigerians.

There had been issues around the payment of $496 million to Global Steel — years after the firm gave up all claims.

The minister also said the current administration had plans to make Ajaokuta Steel Company functional before the end of 2022, but for the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He, however, said that the government was still committed to ensuring that the company was given out through a concession to a competent bidder with technical and financial capacities to optimise its potential.

“We were supposed to make the plant work in 2022. One of the presidential mandates was to resolve all contending issues on Ajaokuta,” he added.

“In 2019, at the Russian-Africa summit in Moscow, President Muhammadu Buhari discussed the idea of resuscitating Ajaokuta with President Vladimir Putin.

“An agreement was reached for Russian engineers to come in for a technical audit by March 2020.

“But the emergence of the first and second waves of COVID-19 stalled the plan.

“We hope that we can give Ajaokuta to a company, not just on a concession basis, but on equity participation.”

Adegbite further said out of the 11 companies bidding, adding that three of the companies were Russian.

“We are talking of companies who intend to bring their own money into Ajaokuta to make sure that it works,” the minister said.

“The plant is still good if we put in the right amount of capital, it will start producing in less than two years.

“Government has employed a transaction adviser who will guide us through the process.”