Nigeria spends billions of naira importing metal to build and update its railways. But if the Ajaokuta Steel company was working, it would reduce import costs for the government.

This was disclosed by Prof. Linus Asuquo, the Director-General, National Metallurgical Development Centre (NMDC), urging reasons why the Ajaokuta Steel complex should not be abandoned,

The DG also revealed that Nigeria has large quantities of iron ore which would make it possible for the steel complex to function.

Prof. Asuquo said that reviving the steel company would be the best option for the country rather than neglecting the project to waste year on year, citing that so much had already been invested into building the complex.

He said: “We should not play with Ajaokuta Steel Company; I think a lot of politics has been played on it over the years, the amount spent on importation of metals on yearly basis by Nigeria is huge.

“We are spending billions of naira to import metals being used for our railway construction, if we have Ajaokuta steel company working, there will be no need to import steel and the company could create massive jobs for the youths, generate power for the country, among others if revived.

“Materials such as iron ore for producing steel were available across the country in large quantum which had been researched by NMDC. He also added that only foreign coal would be needed to blend with Nigeria’s coal for steel making.

“Coal is one of the materials needed for iron making and lots of research have been done on that by the centre.

“Unfortunately, even though we have coal in abundance such as Enugu coal, our coal is not prime coal for steel making. What I mean is that we cannot have 100% coke from our coal.

“From our research, we can blend Lafia Obi coal with imported coal for our coke for steel production.

“I will not agree with some Nigerians that said that our blast furnace for steel production is now obsolete; it can still produce steel. Russia and India are still using blast furnaces, we can modify it into sections to function adequately” he added.

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