The federal government says President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration will no longer complete the Ajaokuta steel plant in 2022, as earlier promised.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war were blamed for frustrating the project on several fronts.
Olamilekan Adegbite, minister of mines and steel development, disclosed this on Thursday while addressing state house correspondents in Abuja.
He said the federal government had, before the pandemic, successfully convinced Russia to complete the steel facility but could not proceed with the negotiations due to what he called “force-majeure brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic”.
The deal with Russia involved a $2 million fee for technical audit required to ascertain the state of the facility before work would begin.
More to follow…
