The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite has said that  Eleven companies, including three from Russia, are in the concession bid for Ajaokuta Steel Company.he disclosed this in Abuja on Thursday at the ninth edition of President Muhammadu Buhari Administration’s Scorecard Series (2015 to 2023).
He said they hope that they can give Ajaokuta to a company, not just on a concession basis, but on equity participation and that The plant is still good If they put in the right amount of capital, it will start producing in less than two years.
He added that the Government has employed a transaction adviser who will guide them through the process.
He said the concession done in 2005 to Global Steel was the main challenge with Ajaokuta Steel Company as it led to litigations and a demand of 7billion dollars by Global Steel.
The minister said the present administration had resolved all the litigations and the COVID-19 pandemic thwarted the government’s plan to make Ajaokuta Steel Company functional before the end of 2022.
He added that One of the presidential mandates was to resolve all contending issues on Ajaokuta and In 2019, at the Russian-Africa summit in Moscow, President Muhammadu Buhari discussed the idea of resuscitating Ajaokuta with President Vladimir Putin, But the emergence of the first and second waves of COVID-19 stalled the plan.
DAILY
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