FG denies concessioning Ajaokuta steel company

The Federal Government has denied reports making the rounds that it has concessioned the Ajaokuta steel rolling mills in Kogi state to a Chinese firm saying nothing of such has taken place.

Egghead Odewale, technical adviser and chief of staff to the minister of Solid Mineral Development,  speaking on Wednesday in Abuja at the pre- Sustainability in the Extractive Industries (SITEI) conference for stakeholders, said the company has been decoupled and the Federal Government reclaimed its ownership.

“What has happened is that the original concession agreement that was signed between the Federal Government of Nigeria, Global Steel Holding Limited and Global Infrastructure Nigeria has been re-modified. It has been modified to decouple Ajaokuta steel company from Nigerian steel mining company in Itakpe. What that also portends is that Global Infrastructure limited has the remaining seven years to complete the mining agreement whereas Ajaokuta has been reverted to the Federal Government of Nigeria”, he explained.

He said one of the major problems faced by the sector is the activities of artisan or illegal miners who have denied the Federal Government of much needed revenue but pointed out that efforts have been put in place, through the new sector road map, to reduce such activities to the barest minimum.

He called on the artisans to embrace such initiative which according to him will create gateway participatory opportunities for all the critical stakeholders adding that the ministry has secured a multi-layered support from the World Bank to the tune of $150 million to focus on seven minerals namely; coal, limestone, bitumen, gold, iron ore, lead and zinc.

The goal of the meeting was to intimate concerned centres on the need to show more commitment and support to the extraction industries for greater productivity, said Bekeme Masade, the executive director of CSR-in-Action and convener of the gathering, while delivering her opening speech.

“This particular meeting is to engage the ministry of solid mineral development on government’s position regarding the mining sector, especially the revival of Ajaokuta Steel company which has been a major source of revenue for Nigeria in the past. The next road to SITEI meeting will explore the potential in oil and gas”, she stated.

While expressing worry about the governance and stakeholders management in the multi billion dollar industry, she hinted that efforts have been intensified to launch Sustainable Extractive and Energy Principles (SEEP) which will help to put critical plans, structures and principles in place for the entire gamut of the extractive industry and power generation sector.

Also speaking, Linus Adei, technical adviser to the minister said the major concern of the present administration in the ministry was to bring all the stakeholders into the decision making processes as well as ensure that a bottom-up approach that will ensure that community participation is sustained.

Also speaking, Okey Onyejekwe, the adviser to the minister on policy and strategy informed that the strategic implementation framework that has been drawn has made it possible to transparently run the sector based on key performance indicators and a dedicated information dissemination.

Orji Ogbonaya Orji, representative of the executive secretary of Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) Waziri Adio, maintained that there are several challenges in the sector but collaborative efforts with serious players in the sector have begun to yield positive results.

He lauded the SITEI initiative as according to him, it will bring most of the activities in the sector to the public domain for scrutiny and interrogation.