Experts have said that the move by the federal government to diversify the economy for efficiency and effective performance, particularly, after the COVID-19 pandemic, can be better achieved through the completion and operation of the Ajaojuta steel company. The company has remained moribund for over 40 years after it’s foundation stone was laid by late president Shehu Shagari, in 1979.
President Muhammodu Buhari, president of Nigeria
The hopes of Nigerians were raised again recently, when president Muhammodu Buhari stressed that his administration was irrevocably committed to actualizing the dream of Ajaokuta steel project. The president had declared in his broadcast to commemorate the 2020 democracy day celebrations that “We remain committed to expanding our mining sector. To this end, I have directed the resuscitation of the Ajaokuta Steel Plant based on Government-to-Government financing and a Public-Private Sector financing
Only recently, the Federal Government reiterated its determination to commit more resources and efforts to optimize the revenue generation and employment opportunities in the mining sector and improve its contributions to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the wake of falling oil prices caused largely by COVID-19 pandemic globally. This experts Said could be achieved by converting these minerals to finished product through the completed and functional Ajaojuta steel company.
Engr. Sumaila Aka’aba, Sole Administrator of the Ajaokuta Steel company in Kogi State
The Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Uchechukwu Ogah, gave this assurance recently during a Webinar Conference tagged ‘Nigeria in the Age of COVID-19’.
He added that the sector would be used as the key for industrial development in the country. This is even as he disclosed that the ministry, in collaboration with its agencies, was developing a framework for the optimisation of revenue generation from the sector, adding that modalities had been put in place to ensure that miners pay royalties due to the government.
The Chairman of the Solid Minerals Development Fund, Mallam Saidu Malami also expressed confidence in the ability of the, Nation Economic Council (NEC), to work with the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development to evolve fiscal policies needed to drive the actualisation of the post-COVID-19 strategy.
For Alhaji Muhammed Ibrahim, a former General Manager in the company, COVID-19 certainly is defining element of the lives and has definitely changed so many things in the ways of doing things by the people.
Speaking with Enduringnews online in Lokoja, Ibrahim said “As you know, it (COVID-19), came with no notice and almost shut down the entire world economy. But it has challenged our capacity to think outside the box and I am happy this government has taken the issue of Steel Development anchored around the resuscitation of the Ajaokuta Steel Plant seriously.
“We all know what steel has done to the economy of the developed nations and for me Nigeria’s post Covid-19 era will throw up great ideas and great opportunities. Ventilators are being developed, hospitals are being expanded along with our healthcare systems.
“A resuscitated Ajaokuta Steel plant will definitely provide the materials for these re-engineering ideas.
Our Agriculture will also benefit as mechanization as well as storage concepts of agric products will be in the mix.
“The rehabilitation of the plant itself will generate economic activities such as direct and indirect employment opportunistic, thereby boasting internal wealth creation. So to me, a post COVID-19 fuctional Ajaojuta steel company will greatly add value to our national economy.
Experts in the Steel sector are also of the opinion that Nigeria’s economic survival after COVID-19 would depend totally on diversification from crude oil.
They stressed that this era should be a wakeup call for the country to explore the non-oil sector to grow its GDP, and urged the Ministry to implore and encourage small scale miners to process the raw materials to meet international best standards.
Recalled that Nigeria recently struck a deal with the Russians on the completion of the abandoned Ajaokuta steel plant. President Muhammadu Buhari and Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly concluded the agreement in Russia, on Wednesday, October 23, 2019. This was viewed as a spring board in the nation’s quest to develop and used the steel sector to galvanized the industrialization of the country.
Ajaokuta Steel Company located in Ajaokuta, Kogi State about 38 km away from Lokoja, the state capital, was established over 40 years ago. It was conceived and steadily developed with the vision of erecting a Metallurgical Process Plant Complex with other ancillaries and facilities. The plant was meant to generate important industrial and economic activities that are critical to diversification of the Nigerian economy.
The Ajaokuta Steel is therefore tagged “The Bedrock of Nigeria’s Industrialisation.” But since 1994 when the Federal Government of Nigeria, stopped funding the completion of the project, the plant has remained at 98 completion status. The rolling plan, for the third decade running, remains tailored towards the reactivation, completion and commissioning of the first of three phases of the project, of 1.3 million tonnes per annum of liquid steel production.
However, the project has had a chequered history occasioned by interplay of forces that have made the integrated commissioning of the Steel plant elusive till date.
According to the Sole Administrator of Ajaokuta Steel, Engr. Sumaila Aka’aba, the Ajaokuta Steel Plant is the development of an integrated iron and steel production and engineering works complex embarked upon by the Federal Government of Nigeria as a strategic industry, job creator and foreign exchange earner and with a foresight on industrialisation and diversification of the national economy.
The sole administrator said that among other expectations, the project “would provide materials for infrastructural development technology acquisition, human capacity building, income distribution, regional development and employment generation.”
He also disclosed that the project would directly employ about 10,000 technical staff at the first phase of commissioning; the upstream, downstream industries and service providers that would evolve all over the nation, would engage not less than 500, 000 employees when fully operational.
ALSO READ THIS: COVID-19: no need for total lockdown in Kogi – Govt,
He also disclosed that government has been committing resources towards the maintenance and preservation of the equipment and facilities of the plant, adding that this is pending the commencement work on the completion, commissioning and continuous operation of the Steel plant.
An engineer in the company, Engr. B.O Suru. Engr B O Suru
Head, Engineering Works and Services told our reporter that the Russians gave Nigeria the best in Ajaokuta, lamenting, however that successive governments in the country have abandoned the project and left it to rot away, “while our graduates that are supposed to get employed in Ajaokuta are now roaming the streets in search of employment.”
He however commended President Buhari for his renewed zeal in the project.
However, Stakeholders in the Nigerian mines and steel industry, have been calling for the return of the Russians to come back to complete the ailing steel plant, saying that only th Russians who built the facility, can truly revive it.
This is as the Buhari administration continues on its efforts aimed at the diversification of the Nigerian economy into an industrial one.
The Russian Export Center and the African Export-Import Bank were also said to be interested in taking part in financing Ajaokuta,” the Moscow-based development institution said in an emailed response to queries, declining to elaborate further.
Even though president Buhari had declined disbursing $1 billion from the state’s oil savings, as suggested by lawmakers, to complete Ajaokuta in April, 2019, the current drive of his administration has shown that he was committed to the completion of the ailing steel project.
Just like every concerned citizens, a Human Rights Activist, Chief Haruna Ahmed Osike has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari not to allow the giant steel industry, the Ajaokuta Steel company, cited in Kogi state to die , saying that the government has committed huge resources in the project.
Osike who made the appeal in Lokoja, while interacting with newsmen recently on the need for the resuscitation of the steel complex , said aside the over 5 billion dollars expended on the project, Ajaokuta steel plant has other valuable features that should not be allowed to waste or die, particularly as the nation move towards revamping the economy after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chief Osike who disclosed that , available records shows that the country imported steel, aluminum products worth about $4.5 billion per annum , appealed to the federal government not to relent in their effort to rescue the plant from total decay.
The advantages of a completed and a well operated Ajaokuta steel complex are many indeed.
According to experts, Nigeria and Nigerians have a lot to gain if Ajaokuta is working at optimal capacity. The importation of over four million tons of rolled steel products and over 12 million tons of other steel products at the present rate will stop if the Ajaokuta steel company is working, leading to savings of several billions in foreign currency per annum.
r death of his mother
Secondly, with rail track production in ASCL, more than $5 billion imports of rail for railway expansion and maintenance will be saved per annum.
According to the new management of the company, the Ajaokuta steel company Engineering Workshops can provide most of the spares for the Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) in the petroleum sector.
Further more, in the Communication and Transmission sectors, towers can be produced in Ajaokuta, saving the country billions of dollars.
To Osike, the availability of flat sheet, structures, spares and other parts, motor vehicle and ship building will become easier in Nigeria, while agro and chemical based industries will have their base increased tremendously.
He however lamented that today, Nigeria is far from reaping any of these benefits due to the non completion of the Ajaokuta steel company.
Experts in the steel sector say that, as a developing nation, Nigeria’s steel production is supposed to be far more than her consumption as a country eager to develop. They said Nigeria’s steel production is presently estimated at about 300,000 tons per annum while her consumption as shown by recent studies in 2010 is above 20 million tons per annum.
It would also facilitate technological growth, the acquisition of technical expertise; provision of inputs for infrastructural development, adding value to the nation’s natural minerals.
Without developing the country’s steel industry, the minerals will be exported at very cheap rates while the nation imports the finished products at exorbitant prices as it is with oil today.
The status of the Ajaokuta Steel Plant not withstanding the long years of non-operation of the steel plant, experts noted that series of technical audits have shown that the technical readiness already achieved has not diminished significantly as preservation of equipment and facilities are constantly undertaken. This according to Engr. Suru, was confirmed by the Technical Audit Report of 2010.
He added that the Ajaokuta Steel Plant equipment and facilities are robust, rugged and were designed for safety and durability. He noted that similar plants in Russia and Ukraine have been in operation for over 100 years.
The Chairman of Mines workers Union of Nigeria, Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited (ASCL), branch, Comrade Momohjimoh Salami, noted that the Federal government can also solve the problem of epleptic power supply by tapping into the 110 MW captive power plant of the company.
Meanwhile, the management of the Ajaokuta steel company has Commended the recent move by the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration to complete and operate the ailing Ajaokuta complex, saying that management and workers are excited by this positive development.
The Sole Administrator of the steel company, Engr. Ismaila Aka’aba who disclosed this to Enduringnews in Ajaokuta, while briefing newsmen on the level of job on the rehabilitation of the Metallurgical Training School of the company said $1.5b securd by the Federal Government will bring Ajaokuta steel complex back to operation.
