Nigeria’s Ministry of Works and Ministry of Steel Development have agreed to collaborate to begin production of steel in the inactive Ajaokuta Steel company in Kogi state, to build Nigerian roads.
The Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi stated this after a meeting with the Minister of Steel Development, Mr. Shuaib Audu in Abuja.
Senator Umahi said that the Ministry of Steel Development will provide more than 16% of the materials to construct Nigerian roads in concrete pavement.
“How do we reactive Ajaokuta Steel. We are going into concrete road, in this concrete road, about 16 percent of it is from Steel while 30 percent is cement. We need a lot of money to start but we decided to and God has given us an idea, we need about 35 billion dollars to start. If we start waiting for FG it might become difficult. We did Return on Investment (ROI), the profit we could have made, part of it will go to bank interest, we are looking at commercial bank but Federal Executive Council has to endorse it. If this could be done, it means Mr. President is actually living to his words and this is going to be possible,” Umahi said.
While commending the Minister of Steel Development for all his efforts in the Steel industry, the Minister of Works promised to collaborate with him to enhance the potentialities of the Ajaokuta Steel Plant- the largest Steel Mill in Nigeria.
Speaking, the Minister of Steel Development, Mr. Shuaib Audu said his Ministry intends to produce Steel for over 30,000 kilometres of roads in Ajaokuta steel as soon as possible.
“What we came to discuss here is how to restart Steel production at Ajaokuta Steel Plant. The Hon Minister of Works has made it very clear that the Federal Government is looking to develop over 30,000 kilometres of road and a large component of that will be from Steel wrought, and percentage of that Steel wrought will be produced in Ajaokuta. We came to have a discussion on how to implement the process for producing it in Ajaokuta within the shortest possible time,” Audu said.
Mr. Audu expressed hope that the revival of the Ajaokuta Steel Mill will revive economic activities and provide jobs while boosting the country’s revenue base.
“And we are to achieve two or three things, one to create job opportunity for Nigerians as a whole, 2 to ensure that the corridor around the North Central Zone and around the Ajaokuta Warri axis is busy with activities and thirdly, the plant has been inactive for close to four decades and we are here to restart the plant within the shortest possible time,” Audu said.
