‘ Why FG shouldn’t lose $6.4bn Ajaokuta investment because of $600m’

The Ebira People’s Association (EPA) has cautioned that Nigeria cannot afford to lose a $6.4bn expended in 15 years between 1979 and 1994 to achieve 98 percent completion of the Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited.

The President General of the association, Dr Abdulrahman Adeiza, told newsmen yesterday in Abuja that the Federal Government plan to sell the company due a relatively ‘little sum’ of $600m needed to complete the steel plant, is a disservice and should be shelved.

He said the government contemplating selling off the largest steel plant in Africa has not been denied, after the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, while briefing Nigerian delegation at the end of the IMF/World Bank Group meetings in Bali, Indonesia, on 14th October 2018, said that the complex is part of the government assets slated for privatization.

He added that when the idea about sale of FG’s assets to generate revenue to fund the 2018, 2019 and 2020 budgets was first muted, the Director General of Budget Office, Ben Akabueze, had, while briefing the House of Representatives Joint Committees on 2018-2020 Medium Term Frame Work /Fiscal Strategy Paper, MTEF/FSP in November 2017, listed Federal Government’s noncore assets from the mines and steel sector as part of those to be sold.

According to him, their concern was borne out of patriotism and also because it does not make economic sense to sell the complex of about 40 years just to fund a year budget of 2018.

“With an installed power plant with the capacity to generate 110 megawatts of electricity and 40 out of the 43 plants fully completed, Ajaokuta steel mill has the capacity to engage 10,000 Nigerians directly and 500,000 others indirectly when fully completed and operational,” he said.