The federal government has charged the management of Ajaokuta Steel Company (ASC) to look into the possibilities of upgrading from mere maintenance of the complex to manufacturing those simple things people keep importing even as the installed equipment has the capacity to produce them locally.
The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Arc. Olamilekan Adegbite gave the charge at the weekend while inspecting ASC facilities as part of his 2-day working visit to the Ajaokuta Steel Complex and the Itakpe National Iron Ore Mining Plant in Kogi State.
Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited (ASCL), popularly known as Ajaokuta Steel Mill, started in 1979 in Ajaokuta (Kwara State then), Kogi State now, built on a sprawling 24,000 hectares (59,000 acres) site is the largest steel mill in Nigeria, and the coke oven and by-products plant is larger than the four refineries in Nigeria combined. It was envisage to be the bedrock of industeialisation for for the country. However, the project was mismanaged and remains incomplete to date, 40 years after. Recent audits carried out show that the equipment is in good condition.
The Minister who expressed delight for meeting the plant in operational condition said were it not for the fact that people were being paid to maintain and monitor the equipment over the years, there would have been nothing to call Ajaokuta again as men of the underworld would have made away with many of the parts.
He said “Now we are here and we can see that Ajaokuta is alive and functioning, and the staff are being paid. The only reason Ajaokuta still exists is because the staff were being paid over the years. If they were not paid to be here you wouldn’t find anything here any more.
“They do not only ensure that the plants are here, they do a lot of dry run and of course maintenance which we have to upgrade to manufacturing.”
According to him, there are so many things that can be produced within the complex but which are being imported in a daily basis.
“We don’t have to continue like that. We can produce such simple technologies as water or petrol pump and a host of others, and put them in the market. I think we should upgrade from maintenance to manufacturing now, and commercialise as well, especially for those things that are useful in society which people buy or import all the time. There is nothing wrong in you having showrooms in all the regions’ strategic towns like Lagos, Abuja and others,” he said.
Acknowledging that Ajaokuta has a lot of prospects for Nigeria, especially in the area of job and wealth creation, the Minister said the first thing they want to do is to get the blast furnace running, adding “that is what the Russians are going to help us do”.
He said even the small workshops that are functioning in the complex at the moment are doing so at very low capacity because all they do is just maintenance.
“But we want them to produce things that they can offer for sale, i.e go commercial,” he added.
On his part, the Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello who affirmed that Kogi government and the people stand to benefit a lot more from Ajoakuta, especially in the area of revenue, jobs, peace and stability when it is operational commended President Buhari for taking steps to make true his promise to revive Ajaokuta during his campaign.
He said, “That is why he went to Russia alongside his ministers and other officials to have government to government agreement towards operationalizing the plant to ensure that it is not left in the hands of amateur persons or businessmen that may come and rip us off.
“Our own involvement is to ensure there is conducive environment. We are going to sensitize our people to ensure that they come out enmass to be employed while ensuring peace and security.”
