Ajaokuta Steel to gulp $1.5bn, gets 2022 completion date

The Ajaokuta Steel Company will begin full production in 2022 as the Russian Government, through the Russian Export Centre and the Africa Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), is expected to commit $1.465bn to the moribund steel company’s revitalization, the Minister of Mines and Steel, Olamilekan Adegbite, has said.

Adegbite said the Federal Government was expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Russia along with the two organizations – Russian Export Centre and Afrexim bank – by the end of this month.

While Afreximbank would provide $1bn, the Russian Export Centre would make $460m available to complete the long moribund project in the next two years.

The minister, who disclosed this in Lagos yesterday at an interactive session with journalists on the developments in the mines and steel sector of the economy, said the Ajaokuta steel was between 95 and 98 per cent completion.