{"id":379,"date":"2022-05-22T07:37:03","date_gmt":"2022-05-22T07:37:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/after-spending-over-8bn-on-ajaokuta-nigeria-imports-n837bn-steel-punch-newspapers\/"},"modified":"2022-05-22T07:37:03","modified_gmt":"2022-05-22T07:37:03","slug":"after-spending-over-8bn-on-ajaokuta-nigeria-imports-n837bn-steel-punch-newspapers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/after-spending-over-8bn-on-ajaokuta-nigeria-imports-n837bn-steel-punch-newspapers\/","title":{"rendered":"After spending over $8bn on Ajaokuta, Nigeria imports N837bn steel – Punch Newspapers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Punch Newspapers<\/a>
punchng.com \u00a9 1971-2020 The Punch newspaper
Ajaokuta Steel
Steelmakers are sceptical about the planned concession of Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited after Nigeria imported iron, steel, and metals valued at N837.761bn in the third and the fourth quarters of 2021.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, Africa\u2019s most populous nation brought in basic metals, iron, and steel products with 6000mm in width, rolled, painted, varnished, and coated with plastics within the six-month period.
The total value of basic metal products imported within the two quarters was N748.529bn, while that of iron and steel was N88.232bn.
This is happening after the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria estimated that the country had spent over $8bn on the idle steel plant so far.<\/p>\n

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Key players in the steel sector are worried about the level of steel imports into the country as well as the lack of functionality of Ajaokuta Steel Company and the Aluminium Smelter Company, located in Akwa Ibom State. The smelter company is supposed to produce ingots for the production of roofing sheets in the country, but it is mired in a legal quagmire.
A former Chairman of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria Steel Group and Chief Executive Officer of Qualitec Industries, Engineer Oluyinka Kufile, said, \u201cThey should tell us who imported the steel products because some people claim that they are producing but are simply importing.\u201d
He noted that there was a possibility that the importers did not pay import duties or paid so little to jeopadise the local steel sector. <\/p>\n

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He lambasted the Federal Government for keeping Ajaokuta Steel for a long time without handing it over to competent managers, expressing doubts over the planned concession of the steel plant.
\u201cIs there anything working in Ajaokuta? Is anyone benefitting from it since it was commissioned? Have they not done any concession before, which did not work? What makes anyone think it will work this time?\u201d
On the Aluminium Smelter Plant, Kufile noted that Nigeria had not demonstrated enough will power to resolve the lingering issue.
\u201cIf your father created so many problems and you cannot resolve them, then you are not ready to move on,\u201d he further said.
There has been a tussle between the Bureau of Public Enterprises and a Nigerian-American company known as Bancorp Financial Investment Group Divino Corporation.
In 2012, the Supreme Court had ruled that BFIG was the preferred bidder for the smelter plant, but the BPE is yet to hand over the plant to the company.
BFIG President, Reuben Jaja, claims that the BPE is frustrating the company\u2019s attempts to take over ALSCON.<\/p>\n

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