The Federal Governor on Wednesday said that the Buhari Administration would not be able to deliver on the Ajaokuta Steel project in 2022 due to circumstances beyond it control.
The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, made the disclosure on Thursday while appearing at the special weekly briefing, coordinated by the Presidential Communications Team at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The Government which regretted its inability to deliver on the Ajaokuta Steel Project blamed COVID-19, the Russia-Ukraine war for the non fulfillment of the promise to complete the project.
The Government had made provision of $2 million for the project and promised to ensure completion of the Ajaokuta Rolling mill in 2022.
However, the Government took the decision to engage a British firm to which renders free services to revive the company.
Adegbite explained that the Government had entered into an agreement with Russia to complete the project which had to be discontinued because of the force-majeure caused by COVID 19.
The minister said that further efforts to
continue the arrangement with were stalled by the current Russia/Ukraine.
Adegbite said that the deal with the Russians also ran into stormy weather as the contracting firm had both interests of the two Easter European countries involved in the ongoing war.
The deal with Russia involved ‘a $2 million fee for technical audit’ which was meant to ascertain the state of the facility before the commencement of work.
He assured of Government’s determination to come up with a deliberate process designed to ensure the completion of the struggling project.
“In October 2019, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari and Russia’s Vladmir Putin met at the Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi and agreed to revive the uncompleted Ajaokuta steel mill but the project suffered force majeure due to COVID-19”
“So the $2 million is still with the Federal Government is just that the President has given the money for that purpose. We had started the process of procurement, then with this war, we can no longer go that way.
“The “British firm is offering to do it for us free now. “By the grace of God, we have started an irreversible process. The problem with Ajaokuta is actually what we call force majeure. Nobody thought of the COVID, because the plan was to deliver Ajaokuta this year 2022.”
“Where we are today, we may not be able to get Ajaokuta to work but I pray that we can start something permanent. I’ve said it before, when we came back from Russia, yes, I went to the public and said, look we will deliver Ajaokuta before the end of this tenure. And I pray that I’ll have a chance to go back and apologize and explain what happened to the people before I leave office.
“It is due to no fault of ours. Everybody was ready to go, but unfortunately, COVID came in. So, it is a force majeure” he said
