Sole Administrator of Ajaokuta steel company, Engineer Sumaila Aka’aba has said Russians engineers will soon arrive Nigeria to upgrade and modernise the steel plant during the rehabilitation period, expected to commence any moment from now.
He lamented that the restrictions on airspace following the COVID-19 pandemic led to loss of four months in the arrival plan of the Russians engineers.
Aka’aba, who stated this at the steel plant in Ajaokuta while interacting with journalists, said the technical audit carried out in 2018 indicated that the status of the steel plant stood at 93.5 per cent, adding that as at today the steel industry is ready for rehabilitation works to be carried out by the Russians.
He said, “The proposal from TyazhPromoExport (TPE) the original builder of the plant who is representing Russian government is to upgrade, modernise and complete the remaining part of the steel complex for optimum utilization; to enable the two governments involved recover their capital investment.”
On the claims in some quarters that Ajaokuta steel plant is obsolete, the Sole Administrator declared that the integrated plant is technically intact and will bounce back once the rehabilitation works are carried out.
“Initially, you hear that Ajaokuta steel plant is 98 per cent completed but today it has come down to 95.3 per cent which was clearly stated in a 12 volume documents we used to discuss with the Russian government when President Muhammadu Buhari visited the country last year.
“It is also the document we used to engaged the Russians and they have made proposals on what to do in Ajaokuta steel company and that is why they will be coming to the steel plant to revalidate the technical audit to be sure that our claims on the status of the plant are correct and in order,” he stated.
According to him, “Hopefully, as soon as the airspace restriction is over, the Russians will come back and do revalidation of the audit report submitted to them to confirm what we said is Ajaokuta steel plant status.”
“After the revalidation they can now put pen on paper so that the project proper can commence,” he explained.
