Solid Minerals Development Minister, Kayode Fayemi, stated that one of the government’s priorities is to meet its annual steel demand of 6.8 million metric tons, from a current output of a third of that, produced mainly from scrap iron.
The Minister, in an interview in his Abuja office, said:“About $5 billion will kick-start the mining sector.”
Nigeria will also require about $2 billion to revive Ajaokuta, a steel complex which was supposed to have an installed capacity of 5 million tons of steel a year.
Situated on the Niger River, in Kogi state, its construction began in 1979 but work was delayed by the government’s failure to pay builders on schedule and it is yet to be completed. By 2004, when it was taken over by India’s Global Steel Holdings, then a subsidiary of Ispat Industries Ltd., it still hadn’t produced any steel.
“In two to five years, we want to have started production of iron ore, lead, zinc, bitumen, nickel, coal and gold at a serious scale,” Bloomberg quoted the minister to have said in an interview.
Companies considering investments in Nigeria’s mining sector include Lagos-based Multiverse Mining & Exploration Plc and Kogi Iron Ltd., based in West Perth, Australia, he said.
Boosting mining output, along with developing agriculture and infrastructure, is part of plans to broaden the economy of Africa’s second largest oil producer. Crude accounts for around 70 per cent of the OPEC member’s revenue and for 13 per cent of gross domestic product, according to Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun.
Fayemi is billed to present a mining plan to President Muhammadu Buhari and later a Bill proposing the creation of a regulator for the sector.
