President Bola Ahmed Tinubu Thursday received briefing on $10 billion investment prospects in the steel sector at the State House, Abuja.
The president, who held a meeting with the Minister of Steel Development, Prince Shuaibu Abubakar Audu, and the Minister of Defence, Alhaji Mohammed Badaru, stressed that a revitalized steel development industry was both a catalyst for robust economic growth and a doorway to immense opportunities for Nigeria’s massive pool of talented entrepreneurs.
The ministers informed the president of their discussions with a Chinese company, Luan Steel Holding Group, to build a new steel plant in Nigeria, as well as to commence the production of military hardware in Ajaokuta Steel Plant.
A delegation led by the Minister of Defence and the Minister of Steel Development had visited Hefei and Guangzhou regions of China to hold business talks with the Chairman of Luan Steel Holding Group, Mr Wang Jianbing; the Chief Executive Officer of the Company, Mr Xiao Weizhan, and other senior executives of the Luan Steel Holding Group.
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The Chinese company is expected to invest billions of dollars in Nigeria to build the new steel plant.
The Minister of Steel Development briefed the President, following his approval to restart the Light Steel Mill (LSM) section of Ajaokuta Steel Complex for the production of iron rods, on the progress made on restarting the section, which will cost N35 billion at the first stage.
The minister said several financial institutions had already provided offer letters for this transaction and that the project is expected to create up to 5,000 direct and indirect jobs for Nigerians.
He also informed the president of discussions with the representatives of Jindal Steel Group of India.
Jindal Steel Group had indicated interest in investing up to $5 billion in a new steel plant in Nigeria on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in New Delhi, India, in September, 2023, and is now considering to either acquire existing plants or set up greenfield plants.
According to the minister, upon the completion of these deals, about $10 billion worth of new investments in both new and existing steel plants in Nigeria will be established, which will create over 500,000 direct and indirect jobs in the steel industry in line with President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda for massive job creation through industrialization.
In a related development, the steel development minister, while fielding questions from journalists, hinted on the plan of the federal government to investigate why the moribund Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited accumulated N33 billion in electricity debt, which caused the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to disconnect the company from the national grid.
The minister, who affirmed that the issue would be clearly looked at to get to the bottom of it, wondered why the company would accumulate such debt in electricity consumption when it had not been operating in full capacity.
