Good news as FG, Russian firm to seal completion deal on Ajaokuta Steel January
Development reasons may have prevailed over political considerations as the Federal Government has shifted ground from its former stand on concessioning the moribund Ajaokuta Steel complex.
Follow up to fruitful discussions at the recent Afro-Russia Summit in Moscow, all is set for the signing of a new memorandum of understanding with a Russian firm for the resuscitation of the Ajaokuta Steel Rolling Mill in January 2020.
Minister of Mines and Steel, Mr Olamilekan Adegbite, while disclosing this in Kaduna, said the Federal Government was determined to reactivate the steel rolling mill which had been down since the Shehu Shagari regime.
Explaining more during his facility tour of the National Steel Raw Material Exploration Agency (NSRMEA) in Kaduna State, he revealed that funds for the project are already in place, adding that a committee has been set up for this purpose.
The minister, who directed the Director-General of NSRMEA, Umar Hassan, to nominate two persons to be part of the committee, said “We have taken the first step. Talks are on with the original builders, a Russian company. The MoU draft is being studied by both sides. And hopefully sometimes in January 2020, we will probably sign the MoU and once the contractors are identified from the Russian side, the funds are already in place, the work will start.”
