Ajaokuta Steel
Company to start operation after Soon
The
Ajaokuta Steel Company in Nigeria will become fully operational
within four months of the release of its six hundred and fifty
million naira fund captured in the 2010 budget.
The Chairman of the Interim Management Committee of the company,
Chief Philip Umunnakwe, said in Ajaokuta, that there was need to
overhaul some plants to make them operational.
Umunnakwe noted that the fund if released in bulk will enable
the company achieve a lot in three months, as there was need to
pay the outstanding eight months salaries owed workers.
Umunnakwe, who also oversees the National Iron Ore Mining
Company, Itakpe, said that out of the six hundred and fifty
million naira, two hundred and fifty million naira would be
spent on the Itakpe Company.
Umunnakwe stated that in spite of the challenges, the committee
had achieved targets given to it, as the plant was in good
condition, and the rate of theft had been reduced drastically.
The Chairman, who credited the achievements of the committee to
the efforts made by Mrs Diezani Allison-Madueke, the former
Minister of Mines and Steel, said that the steel sector was a
veritable tool for the attainment of the Vision 20:2020.
He said that all other sectors of the economy were dependent on
the steel sector as the sector held the key to the nation’s
industrialisation.
The Ajaokuta Steel Company was established in September 1979,
and charged with the task of constructing and operating an
integrated iron and Steel Plant.
NAN/Williams/Qasim
