Paucity of power forced new owners of Jos Steel Complex out of business since 2006
The core investor in the privatized Jos Steel Complex, Eta-Zuma Group has revealed why it has never rolled out single steel from the company since 2006 it bought it from the government.
In an interview in Abuja, the chairman of the group, Dr. Innocent Ezuma said “We acquired the Jos Steel Complex from the Federal Government in 2006, but the steel complex had not been able to go into production because of lack of guaranteed electricity supply”.
However, he said to resolve the situation, the company resolved to build a captive power plant that would ensure that the steel complex would get the guaranteed 100MW of electricity it required to be in production.
Ezuma said “We have opened an active mine in Okobo, Ankpa Local Government Area of Kogi State and currently mine 50,000 metric tonnes of coal per month. We have the capacity to double that as demand increases”.
“We are the leading suppliers of premium quality coal to Nigeria’s industrial end users, including Dangote and Zuma Energy coal-to-power project under development, which will supply 1,200MW of electricity to the grid, he noted.”
