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The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that President Muhammadu Buhari, recently withheld assent to the Ajaokuta Steel Company Bill.

Jegede told NAN in Lagos on Monday that the steel company had the potential to create millions of jobs to tackle the socioeconomic crisis in the nation because of the viability of the iron and steel industry globally.

She explained that President Buhari refused assent to the bill because of the current economic crisis but called for political will on the part of government to resolve issues of corruption in previous trade agreements that had kept the firm under developed.

She appealed to the government to create policies that would favour the regeneration of the industry as well as an enabling environment to create confidence for the private sector to inject funds into the project again.

“Apart from injecting funds into the project, we also need experts, it is not as if Nigerian experts cannot do the project but we need those who are actively involved in the industry, a lot of the staff of the Ajaokuta Steel Company have not worked for a long time so they might not be in tune with what is globally trending in that sector.

“So we need people to inject funds and invest into the project; government should review our policies to enable the industry and then Public Private Partnership to get the project going,” she said.

She said that previous government efforts to revive the industry had been ridden in various controversies and political interference which the Buhari administration must address.

“Enabling environment for PPP should not be treated like a normal national project, we have to back this Ajaokuta issue with right policies, framework and legalities in place to make it difficult for politicians to manipulate things,” she said.

She added that political interference would be minimal with the right transparent policies on ground, so that Nigeria could take its pride of place in comity of nations, through harnessing opportunities in its huge steel sector.

“We need the political will to create these policies that will favor that industry, the industry needs to be strictly regulated,” she told NAN.

Jegede, a member of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, explained that the steel industry was a huge revenue platform, adding that consequences of not properly harnessing it were numerous.

“The implications of not assenting to this bill are very numerous; first and foremost, we are denying ourselves the opportunity of tapping into the enormous market of the steel industry.

“Secondly, if that project had been successful, it would have created employment capacity for the country because it is a large project and it is such a shame that the government lacks the will power to salvage it.

“It would have created direct and indirect job opportunities, also it would have aided our manufacturing sector and to kick start the industrialisation goals of the country.

“The government did not think of it well, that project is something that should have been pursued to conclusion,” she said.

She also appealed to the federal government to work with technocrats and metallurgical engineers to fashion out ways for development of the iron and steel industry.

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The upper chamber also said all monies that may from time to time be appropriated and authorised by any tier of government should be part of the funding for the completion of the project.

It said all loans or grants from time to time made to the country for the purpose of completing the Ajaokuta Steel Company should be accommodated.

This followed the adoption of the “Ajaokuta Steel Company Completion Fund Bill, 2018 passed by the Senate.

The Bill slated for concurrence, was presented by Senate Leader, Senator Ahme Lawan.

The proposed legislation stated that the monies in the fund shall be applied by the minister subject to appropriation by the National Assembly only for the construction, improvement, extension, enlargement and replacement of infrastructure and works, including the provision, acquisition, improvement and replacement of other capital assets required in respect of or in connection with the completion of the Ajaokuta Steel Company project.

It added that the cash shall be used for the acquisition of land and of any right or interest in or over land and in respect of the use of any invention; the carrying on of any survey, research or investigation preparatory to the under taking of any such purpose as is referred to in paragraph a and b or the formation of any plan or scheme for the development, improvement, of Ajaokuta Steel Company project.

Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, who presided, said the Bill, if signed into law, would go a long way to facilitate the quick completion of the Ajaokuta Steel complex.

The Senate also adopted the Presidential Programme on Rehabilitation and Reintegration (establishment and implementation) Bill 2018.

The Bill provides legal instrument to implement the Presidential Amnesty programme in the area of disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration.

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Isah Onobere, the Sole Administrator of the company who made this known during a media tour to the company on Friday, said that the first phase of the plant would also provide direct employment for 10,000 technical staff when inaugurated.

He also said the first phase had been completed, adding that it was envisaged to produce 1.3 million tonnes of liquid steel per annum.

He said that it would cost 400 million dollars to complete Ajaokuta steel, which had reached 98 per cent completion.

According to him, two billion dollars is needed for infrastructure rehabilitation and operational cost.

He said that government had begun to commit resources toward the maintenance and preservation of the equipment and facilities of the plant recently and called for improved efforts.

According to him, government is considering the report on various options on the way forward for the completion of the project.

These options he said include outright sales, concessioning and joint venture of Ajaokuta steel.

He, however, denied rumour about the company equipment being obsolete, adding that the company, with 98 per cent completed, could stand test of time, adding that all its equipment were functioning appropriately.

The then President, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, laid the foundation of Ajaokuta in 1980 and within four years, it attained was 84 per cent completion.

Ajaokuta steel company is located on 24,000 hectares of sprawling green-field landmass built on 800-hectares of land.

It is Nigeria’s leading steel company and intended to be the leading supplier of quality steel products in all the major economic sectors, including construction, packaging, wire drawing and nail making industry among others.

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Ogundipe told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that the company had lot of steel metal that could be used for automobile industry.

“If Ajaokuta steel is functioning, there is possibility that we get the raw materials needed for automobile industry instead of the scraps that are being used now.

“The steel company holds the future of auto industry in Nigeria because when we talk of auto, two things are involved which are the plastics or metals.

“So the company holds the metals and metals carry almost 70 per cent of vehicles apart from the interior,’’ he said.

Ogundipe said the council staff needed training for them to improve in the area of research, saying that most of the workers did not have international training.

He added that the council needed fund for equipment to function at full capacity.

Ogundipe called for more political will to enable the council to carry out research and function properly.

He called for a law in the country that would make it compulsory for companies to use locally made products, adding such would make the council do better.

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Prof. Gbenga Okunlola, the President of the society, who gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, said that although work at the plant had reached 98 per cent completion, Nigeria still require $4bn (N1.2 trillion) to complete the construction.

Okunlola said the society had advised the government to run the company as a private entity and not as a government driven company.

According to him, government may not be able to raise the fund at this time of recession and as such, the way out is concessioning

“Government has no business in steel production; Ajaokuta must be concession to private company that has experience in steel production.

“One of the strengths of a country is the steel industry,’’ Okunlola said.

He said there should be holistic and stringent arrangement with whoever the company would be given on concessional basis, to avoid mismanagement.

The society’s president said the steel company could create 200,000 direct and indirect jobs, when it becomes operational.

He added that the company would also reduce importation of steel into the country.

NAN recalls the federal government in August 2016, re-concessioned the National Iron Ore Mining Company [NIOMCO] at Itakpe to Global Infrastructure Holding Limited (GIHL), an India company, but took full control of the Ajaokuta steel company.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration had concessioned Ajaokuta steel and NIOMCO to GIHL in 2004 and 2005 respectively.

The Indian firm, however, did not live up to expectations in managing the two companies.

Consequently the federal government, under the late Umaru Yar’Adua, revoked the Ajaokuta concession contract in April 2008.

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Other challenges against the mining sector, according to the minister, include funding, low level of geo-sciences information, and inadequate mine site infrastructure to facilitate mineral resource development.

Sada, who spoke at a Ministerial Press Briefing in Abuja, said the Federal Government was working assiduously to ensure that the plant functioned optimally.

He maintained that most of the bad components of the plant had been reactivated with the rolling mill units functioning optimally.

“One of the major challenges of the Ajaokuta Steel Plant has been the problem of infrastructure like the railway for transporting raw materials to the plant,” he said.

Sada lamented that government spent huge amount of money on the importation of steel products into the country. “In 2013, N488.7 billion was spent on the importation of 2.01 tonnes of steel products into Nigeria,” he said.

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