COVID-19 Delaying Ajaokuta Technical Audit – Minister

The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, says a technical audit of the Ajaokuta Steel Plant was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

He said the audit which was meant to start in March and end in June would provide a bill on how much would be required to resuscitate the Ajaokuta plant.

Speaking at a virtual conference organised by the Nigerian British Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, Adegbite said that the evaluation might commence in July once the lockdown had been completely lifted.

He explained that different options which had been explored in the past to revive the steel plant had failed.

According to him, an agreement has been reached by the Nigerian government, the Afrexim Bank and Russian government to revive the plant in a build, operate and transfer model.

The minister stated that Afrexim Bank had pledged $1bn towards the project while Russia Export Centre would contribute $450m to the completion of the plant.