$612m Needed To Reactivate, Complete Ajaokuta Steel Plant -Audit
$612m is needed to reactivate and complete the Ajaokuta Steel plant according to a report of an audit conducted by Nigerian and Ukranian experts.
According to the report the controversial plant which was started in the 1970s, 95.7% of the plant has been completed.
The report publish on their website, stated that details were made available to a former minister of state for mines and steel development, Bawa Bwari, by the company’s sole administrator, Mr Sumaila Abdul -Akaba.
Bwari was minister of steel under President Buhari, till may 29.
The company said,
The technical audit report on Ajaokuta Steel Plant, which ascertained that the plant is 95.7 per cent erection ready has been submitted. Reactivation and completion requirement stands at $652m.
“The internal technical audit, which was conducted on the facilities of the steel plant between February and April 2018 was an updated version of the last technical evaluation done in the year 2010 by M/S Reprom Nigeria Limited.
Abdul-Akaba was quoted as saying,
The 2018, technical audit of the Ajaokuta steel plant was undertaken fully by Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited engineers, technicians and other professionals.
This is in line with the policy of the present Federal Government on the utilisation of maximum local content possible in the execution of sundry public works in the country.
The Ajaokuta steel plant had been under the care of professionals over the years, some of who even partook in the construction and erection. It was therefore an opportunity to know hidden details which no outside contractor could get.
It also afforded the company the opportunity to assemble raw information on the plants and equipment which can form the basis for future assessments and decisions if need be. This advantage was not there in the previous exercises that were wholly carried out by foreign contractors.
