Built as symbols of Nigeria's industrial pride and attempts to diversify her economy, Alscon and the flagship Ajaokuta projects were opened with a lot of fanfare and heralded at the future of the country. However, they have both since fallen into states of disrepair and repeated attempts to revive them through privatisation have failed.
Earlier this year, President Muhammadu Buhari named Dr Fayemi, the former Ekiti State governor as the minister of solid minerals with a mandate to diversify the economy making the sector an alternative to crude oil. Describing both the Alscon and Ajaokuta projects as symbols of collective shame and embarrassment for all Nigerians, Dr Fayemi revealed that Nigeria currently spending over N3trn (£10bn) annually importing steel and aluminium products.
Dr Fayemi said: “Not many things have had a sobering effect on me as what I have seen in the solid mineral sector since I took up this assignment. It is a collective shame for all Nigerians for two massive projects as Ajaokuta Steel and Alscon to be allowed to remain moribund in spite of the resources invested and their immense potentials.”
Although Dr Fayemi said the cost of reactivating Ajaokuta in particular was not one for the government alone to bear, he said President Buhari was so disturbed by the matter that he would be willing to approve a joint financing arrangement for the project. He assured that before the end of the first quarter of 2016, government would have a direction, whether to take over and run Ajaokuta, or look for an alternative arrangement, after the lingering legal issues surrounding the company may have been resolved.
According to Dr Fayemi, the government was willing to hold discussions with the relevant interested parties to disentangle the company and its affiliates to agree on the best way forward. He added that these discussions would involve the ministry of solid minerals, the justice ministry, the Bureau of Public Enterprises and other interested players like Global Infrastructure Nigeria.
“Government sees that as a priority and it is unacceptable to have so much investment and just walk away from it. We just have to fix Ajaokuta.
“The total cost to fix Ajaokuta is not what the country can afford easily. We have to figure out creative and innovative ways to partner with local and international financiers who can make it happen so that we begin to produce liquid steel and export products from the company,” Dr Fayemi added.
He also lamented that 80% of activity in some regions was dominated by illegal artisanal mining conducted informally, without any revenue for the country. Dr Fayemi announced plans to bring these informal miners into a legalised framework through the Mining Act and ensure that they began to pay government the right taxes and royalties.
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