Recall that the federal government in May 2020,kicked off the long awaited resuscitation of the Ajaokuta project with the inauguration of the implementation Committee.
This followed the renewed interests by the Russian government, who are working with the Africa Import and Export Bank, to pool funds in excess of $1.4bn to revive the steel plants whose construction commenced about 42years ago.
President Muhammadu Buhari during a state visit to Russia , brokered the new deal with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, during his visit to Russia in October 2019.
TheAnalyst checks show that Afrexim is putting in $1 billion for the project and the Russians are investing $460 million .
Speaking to Journalists in Ajaokuta on Friday against the backdrop of some claims that Ajaokuta steel plant located in Kogi state is obsolete, the Sole Administrator of the steel plant, Engineer Sumaila Aka’aba has declared that the integrated plant is not obsolete.
He said that the technical audit carried out in 2018 indicated that the status of the steel plant stood at 93.5 per cent , adding that as at today the steel industry is in good conditions .
“Initially, you hear that Ajaokuta steel plant is 98 per cent completion , but today it has come down to 95.3 per cent which was clearly stated in a twelve volume documents we used to discuss with Russian government when President Muhammadu Buhari visited the country last year.
“It is also the document we used to engaged the Russians and they have made proposals on what to do in Ajaokuta steel company and that is why they will be coming to the steel plant to revalidate the technical audit to be sure that our claims on the status of the plant are correct and in order” he stated.
Engr. Aka’aba who also disclosed that the Russians are coming to upgrade and modernize the steel plant , lamented that the restrictions on airspace as a result of convid-19 pandermic has led to lost of four months in their arrival plan.
“Hopefully as soon as the airspace restriction is over , the Russians will come back and do revalidation of the audit report submitted to them to confirm what we said is Ajaokuta steel plant status after fourth years they left the plant.
“After the revalidation they can now put pen on paper so that the project proper can commence” he noted.
Speaking on the issue of obsolensce of some of the equipment in the steel plant as erroneously claimed in some quarters, the Sole Administrator said that the items used in building the steel plant was of high quality and standard that can be found any where in the world.
He added that the steel plant can be upgraded and modernized to suite the present technological advancement.
“The proposal from TPE the original builder of the plant who is representing Russian government is to upgrade, modernize and complete the remaining part of the steel complex for optimum utilization to enable the two government involve recover their capital investment”
While commending the staff of the industry for their commitment towards ensuring that the plant maintain it status, Engr Aka’aba assured them that very soon the steel complex would bounce back to life.
Ajaokuta Steel Company
