06 July 2016, Sweetcrude, Lagos – The Federal Government has projected a steady increase in domestic demand for steel in Nigeria in the coming decade, saying this would be driven by increased industrialisation.
The government expects that industrialisation would ignite a surge in building construction, power, automotive construction, agriculture, road and bridge building, military technology and infrastructure development, refinery investments and other heavy duty machinery, to appreciably push up demand for steel in the country
Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, disclosed this in London at a business forum organised by the Royal African Society.
The minister, who urged investors to take advantage of the country’s huge steel market, said iron ore and steel would account for the bulk of material inputs needed to industrialise Nigeria.
Quoting a recent report, the National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan, Fayemi said: “We project a steady increase in domestic demand for steel in Nigeria in the coming decade, driven by increased industrialisation that would ignite a surge in building construction, power, automotive construction, agriculture, road and bridge building, military technology and infrastructure development, refinery investments and other heavy duty machinery.”
The minister, at the event, also disclosed that Nigeria would spend about $3 trillion over the next 30 years to fund the infrastructural needs of its growing economy, but added that the National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan estimated Nigeria’s current core infrastructure stocks gap at $80 billion, based on international benchmarks.
A statement by the Senior Assistant to the minister on Media, Olayinka Oyebode, said Fayemi, who presented a keynote address titled, “Mining for Prosperity: Fuelling Nigeria’s Industrialisation in the 21st Century,” said the investment on infrastructure would allow Nigeria to close its current infrastructural gap and sustain an ideal infrastructure stock level of 70 per cent of GDP and build infrastructural assets across the seven critical sectors: roads, rail, ports, airports, power, water and ICT.