Audu has revealed that the revamp of Ajaokuta Steel Company would require about 2 billion dollars and could rise to about 5 billion dollars.
There appears to be no ray of light in sight for the abandoned Ajeokuta Steel Company as the Minister of Steel Development, Shuibu Audu says that the minimum required funds for the revitalization of the Steel Company is about 2billion dollars which could rise to well over 5 billion dollars to cover not just the plant and equipment but things that has to do with the infrastructure.
Audu, made this known on Thursday during an interactive session with the House of Representatives Committee on Steel Development where he revealed that the Federal government may not be able to fund the Ajaokuta Steel project through Budgetary provision but funding can be achieved through private capital investment as about Five thousand Nigerians will benefit from the revitalization of the project.
He said “Ajaokuta steel was about 98% completed but different administrations have not been able to actualise it for over four and half decades but the renewed hope administration of President Bola Tinubu is committed to actualising it.
“We don’t have the funding to be able to revive Ajaokuta Steel, but we need to think outside the box. It will require about 2 billion dollars and could rise to about 5 billion dollars”
Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Zainab Gimba (APC, Borno) while commending the efforts made so far by the Ministry called for an assessment of the previous audit technical report before embarking on a 2 billion dollar loan to revive the Steel company.
OrderPaper recently published through its Growth Initiative For Fiscal Transparency (GIFT) Project highlighted eight (8) abandoned projects and the amount wasted on those projects. It equally through the GIFT Half Hour Radio show noted the root causes of abandoned projects in Nigeria.
