Minister of Steel Development, Shuaibu Audu says he will meet with the Transmission Company of Nigeria TCN, in the coming days to come up with plans to restore the steel company to the National grid.
The Minister made this known while responding to questions from Journalists on the disconnection of the Steel company by the TCN over N33 billion debt owed to the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading PLC NBET, and Service providers.
Audi says the government will investigate the consumption of high electricity in a company that is not operating at full capacity.
He said, “I spoke to the MD of Ajaokuta today, and this was one of the questions I asked and we’re going to get to the bottom of it, why consumption of so much electricity in a place that is not operating at full capacity. Part of what we also need to do is that we’re trying to revive Ajaokuta in a collegiate system, piecemeal, so we may not have the capacity to be able to pay all those outstanding amounts immediately”.
The Minister added that a lot of work is being put into the resuscitation of the Ajaokuta Steel plant hence the need for the support of all relevant government agencies including the electricity company to revive the steel plant
“Is a gradual process Ajaokuta cannot be revived overnight. This is an institution, this is a plant that has not been working for 45 years, is a difficult task to try and get it back on track. So we need the support of the entire government apparatus, we need the support of stakeholders. We need the support of everyone to be able to do this difficult job. This job is not a job that myself and Mr. President can do alone. We need the support of everyone including the electricity company to be able to help us to get this project back on track so that we can create the hundreds of thousands of jobs we want to create for Nigerians.
“Part of what the MD of Ajaokuta told me is that most of the money is in interest payments. And EMBET, the electricity company that has disconnected it is also a government agency. So if we as a government ministry, and government agency are trying to revive Ajaokuta working hard to do that, we should not have another hand within the same government making things very difficult for us. And so part of what we plan to do is to sit down on the table in the next few days as quickly as possible to be able to come up with a plan so that they can put it back on the grid and put things back in order.” The Minister added.
Recall that the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) suspended operation at the Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited (ASCL) due to its failure to settle a debt of N33 billion owed to the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading PLC (NBET) and Service Providers.
In addition, TCN also threatened termination of ASCL’s Market Participation Agreement if the defaults remain unresolved after 30 business days of disconnection.
Olusola Akintonde
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