13 January 2016, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The Federal Government will before the end of this first quarter of the year take over the Ajaokuta Steel Company located in Kogi State as well as other government-owned steel firms that were privatised in the past.
The previous governments had faced numerous legal constraints in its bid to take over the companions particularly the Ajaokuta firm after government’s agreement with the last concessionaire fell apart.
Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, who disclosed this in Abuja, said: “It is not only Ajaokuta. We need to disentangle them (steel rolling mills). We will take that as a priority. It is unacceptable to any sane person to abandon such a project. We will partner people who can make it happen.
“This is a sector that can provide a million direct jobs and more indirect jobs. We need to formalise those jobs (informal jobs) so that we can bring them into the sector.”
According to Fayemi, Ajaokuta has a 110 megawatt of power plant that can supply the whole of Kogi and Ekiti. We need to fix Ajaokuta and we will fix it”.