The Federal Government and Global Steel have signed an agreement for the resuscitation of the Ajaokuta Steel Company in Kogi state.
The signing of the agreement, which took at the State House, Abuja on Monday, is aimed at revamping the Nigeria Iron Ore Mining Company (NIRONCO), Itakpe.
Dr. Kayode Fayemi, the Minister of Solid Minerals signed on behalf of the Federal Government while Pramod Mittal, Chairman of Global Steel, signed on behalf of the company.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who presided over the event, urged the
parties to stick to the terms of the agreement in order to achieve the
objective of revamping the Itakpe and Ajaokuta companies within the
agreed time.
The vice president noted that the signing of the agreement was unique
which informed the presence of the media and other stakeholders.
Osinbajo, however, noted that it was a good thing that the country is
now able to recover from all that and move towards getting things
right.
He stated that everybody in Nigeria keeps talking about what the
nation can do with steel, adding that it was “so obvious that steel is
such an important requirement and we spent so much on it”.
“This is possibly the first concrete step towards ensuring that all
of our complaints are dealt with and that we are able to, not too long
from now, produce our own steel. So that we can save ourselves some
foreign exchange and create jobs and opportunities for local investments
and local individuals who would be interested in working with us on
steel,” Osinbajo said.
Fayemi had recalled that in 2008, the Umaru Yar’Adua administration
revoked the Itakpe resuscitation contract that was concessioned to
Global Steel by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration in 2005.
The concessioning was to last for 10 years.
He added that since the contract was revoked, both parties had been
in arbitration and later went into mediation, that resulted is the
current agreement signing.
The minister said the determination of the Muhammadu Buhari administration to diversify the economy ignited the effort to ensure that Itape and Ajaokuta came alive again.
According to him, the agreement to return the Iron Ore Mining Company
to Global Steel was reached in London in June to enable it complete its
concession and ensure that ownership of Ajaokuta returns to the federal
government.
Fayemi said that in executing the agreement, other areas such as the
rail transportation and ports issues would be addressed by the Ministry
of Transportation.
He said that the Iron Ore Company was the core supplier of raw
materials for major steel companies in the country and that government
had spent $3.3 billion to import steel products since.
He said there was enough iron ore deposit to sustain the local needs, especially the Ajaokuta and Delta steel company, Aladja,
Mittal in a speech said that his company started operations in the
country in 2004 with determination to produce steel for the country.
He said the process was long but it was important that the steel
sector was developed fast to speed up other types of development in the
country.
He said the company was poised to produce three million tons of steel
in three years but added that for effectiveness the company would need
rail, gas and power supplies.
Howard Richardson, the mediator, said that the
mediation gave the best opportunity for wisdom and common sense to
prevail and to give the steel industry in the country the best of all
possible starts in the future.
Source: NAN
Photo Credit: Instagram – @buharisallau
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