By Dele Ogbodo and Victoria Onyisi
The Minister of Works, Engr. David Umahi and his colleague in Steel Development, Mr. Shuaib Audu, have concluded synergy and strategies through tapping into the opportunities in Ajaokuta Nigeria’s steel sector to ramp development of the nation’s 30,000 kilometres of road infrastructure.
This was part of the outcome of duo’s brainstorming session which held on Tuesday at the Headquarters of the Ministry of Works, Abuja which aligns with the Renewed Hope Agenda of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Recall that Engr. Umahi has underscored the President commitment to do everything possible to reverse the ugly trend of Nigeria’s developmental history and revolutionize national economic development within the shortest period of time.
The far reaching resolutions of the two Ministers also underscored the imperative of coordination, cooperation coherence, and complementarity in the execution of Federal Government’s action plans for national development, Barr. Orji Uchenna Orji, Chief Press Secretary to the Minister of Works, made the disclosure to Journalists in a signed statement.
The Ministers resolved that both wwould play overarching role in the road infrastructure revolution plan envisioned by President Tinubu, by providing more than 16% of the materials needed for the construction of Nigeria’s roads in concrete pavement.
Apart from the utilization of local content, Umahi, added that tapping into the opportunities in steel industry would not only create jobs and wealth for Nigeria’s population, it would also create a global market and encourage the country’s rapid industrialization drive.
“Ajaokuta Steel must be reactivated and put into use. We are going into concrete road, in this concrete road, about 16 percent of it is from Steel while 30% is cement.
“We need a lot of money to start but we decided to face it and God has given us an idea, we need about 35 billion dollars to start. If we start waiting for FG it might become difficult. We did Return on Investment (RoI), the profit we could have made, part of it will go to bank interest, we are looking at commercial bank but Federal Executive Council has to endorse it. If this could be done it means Mr President is actually living to his words and this is going to be possible”
The Minister commended his Steel and Development counterpart for his efforts in developing the steel sector, noting that steel industry is the bedrock of Nigeria’s industrialization and the backbone that stimulates national development and economic boost for the industrial growth of any nation.
Umahi, assured that his Ministry would work collaboratively in his efforts of enhancing the potentialities of Ajaokuta Steel Plant- the largest Steel Mill in Nigeria.
“Mr. President never made a mistake in his appointment, I call him a Divine President, and the most important thing is that our eyes are on the job.”
The Minister continued: “One of the renewed hope agenda of Mr President is to think outside the box, the President inherited a large chunk of debt from the past administration.
The beauty about it is that he is not complaining, he knew how the country was before he took the job and how it is. The good thing is that if you have passion for something God will give you an idea.”
Speaking earlier, the Minister of Steel Development acknowledged that the meeting was robust and incisive, adding: “My mission is a wonderful one, I had a fantastic meeting initiated by the Hon. Minister of Works.
“We are seriously thinking outside the box to see how we can implement the Renewed Hope Agenda of Mr President.”
Both Ministers also resolved that the Federal Government is looking to develop over 30,000 kilometers of road and a large component of that will be from Steel wrought, and percentage of that Steel wrought will be produced in Ajaokuta.
“We came to have a discussion on how to implement the process for producing it in Ajaokuta within the shortest possible time.”
Audu, emphasized the importance of the initiative by both Ministers and expressed hope that it would provide the needed economic boost for the nation, generate revenue and provide thousands of direct jobs for skilled and non- skilled technicians and hundreds of thousands of unskilled jobs in Nigeria.
“And we are to achieve 2 or 3 three things, one to create job opportunity for Nigerians as a whole, two, to ensure that the corridor around the North-central zone and around the Ajaokuta Warri axis is busy with activities and thirdly, the plant has been inactive for close to four decades and we are here to restart the plant within the shortest possible time.” He said.