The
Minister of Solid Minerals, Kayode Fayemi, has described the current status of
both the Ajaokuta Steel Company and Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria as
symbols of collective shame and embarrassment for all Nigerians.
With
Nigeria currently spending over N3 trillion annually on importation of steel
and aluminium products, government established the two complexes to help the
country save the huge losses through local production of the commodities.
However,
both multi-billion dollar projects have been entangled in dubious and corrupt
privatisation arrangements and subsequently abandoned to waste.
But
speaking in Abuja at his inaugural media briefing on the state of the country’s
solid minerals sector, the Minister said the Federal Government has resolved to
turn the companies’ fortunes around and give value to Nigerians.
“Not
many things have had a sobering effect on me as what I have seen in the solid
mineral sector since I took up this assignment,” the minister said.
“It is
a collective shame for all Nigerians for two massive projects as Ajaokuta Steel
and ALSCON to be allowed to remain moribund in spite of the resources invested
and their immense potentials,” he added.
Although
Mr. Fayemi said the cost of reactivating Ajaokuta in particularly was not one
for the government alone to bear, he said President Muhammadu Buhari was so
disturbed by the matter that he would be willing to approve a joint financing
arrangement for the project.
He assured that before
the end of the first quarter of 2016, government would have a direction,
whether to take over and run Ajaokuta, or look for an alternative arrangement,
after the lingering legal issues surrounding the company may have been
resolved.
Government,
he said, was willing to hold discussions with the relevant interested parties
to disentangle the company and its affiliates to agree on the best way forward.
The
discussions, the minister explained, would involve the Ministry of Solid
Minerals, with its Justice counterpart; Bureau of Public Enterprises, and other
interested players, particularly Global Infrastructure Nigeria Limited.
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