By ABAH SUNDAY, Abuja
The Federal Government of Nigeria says it is on the threshold of unveiling a 3-year roadmap for the revival and operationalisation of the Ajaokuta Steel Company (ASC).
Minister of Steel Development Prince Shuaibu Abubakar Audu gave the hint while having his maiden interactive session with the media since assumption of office in Abuja on Friday.
The disclosed that the 3-year Ajaokuta revival plan is an inset of a 10-year roadmap to be launched in the coming weeks for the revival of the nation’s entire metal industry.
The SUMMIT POST can report that over 40 years after the Ajaokuta project was flagged off to be the bedrock of Nigeria’s industrialisation, not a single sheet of steel has been produced because its completion and operationalisation has remained a mirage, even as it reportedly achieved over 95 per cent completion in the early 1980s, due to neglect by successive administrations.
According to the Minister, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu created the Steel Ministry about five and a half months ago in August, 2023 with the mandate to revive the nation’s steel sector, particularly, Ajaokuta, which is the flagship project, to be the basis for the industrialisation of Nigeria.
He maintained that though it is a herculean task, given the huge amount of commitment required to change the abysmal narrative of the sector since independence, the current administration has set out to accomplish it in line with the Renewed Hope agenda of the President.
“The Ajaokuta Steel set up to be an avenue for industrialisation of Nigeria more than 45 years ago hit a brick wall, to say the least. And the other steel industries haven’t done so well in terms of local production. Local consumption of steel is actually in excess of 5 million metric tonnes, whereas local production is a very small fraction of that.
“Most of the steel that is even produced locally is actually made from scrap metals as opposed to using the natural resources that abound including iron ore, cooking coal, dolomite, and limestone.
“All the mineral resources that are required are within 65 kilometres radius of the private and government owned steel plants the we used to have. And we have more than 90 per cent of all the raw materials required for steel production.
“So the mandate that the President has given us is to do our home work to try and revive the industries. It is a difficult task, so there are certain things we have in our plan to do in order to achieve this objective.
“Number one, we are creating a 10-year roadmap for the revival of the steel and other metals industries in Nigeria. In addition, we also put together a 3-year roadmap for the revival of the Ajaokuta Steel Complex,” Audu explained.
He said the first part of the 3-year revival plan for Ajaokuta, which, according to him, would require within the range of 2 to 5 billion US dollars, is to concession it, adding that decision to that effect would be reached soon, after which different investors may handle the 44 distinct units of the complex for production.
Speaking further, he said, “Mr President has also directed that we use a collegiate approach. And the two things we are focusing on under that approach to achieve some short-term success is the revival of the Light Steel Mill (LSM) of the complex,” adding that he had already secure the assurance of the Minister of Works that there will be off-takers of the iron rods to be produced from LSM.
Highlighting the current importation trends, the Minister who stressed the importance of passing a bill for the meteorological industry to support the steel sector, revealed that Nigeria spends over $4 billion on steel imports, constituting 90 per cent of the country’s steel demand.
He affirmed that he had also had fruitful engagement with the Minister’s of Defence so that as efforts are on to revive the Engineering Workshop of the Complex, it would be used to manufacture military hardwares locally when operational.
Responding on behalf of the Minister during the question and answer segment to a questions from newsmen on how remote or rural areas dwelling Nigerians could benefit from the viable steel industry being pursued, the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Dr Mary Ogbe,
said there were plans to leverage training centres such as the Training Institute in Onitsha to train and certify artisans in such locations to qualify them for employment or business in the industry.