The Nigeria Union of Mines Workers has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for taking steps towards the revitalization of the Ajaokuta Steel Company through the proposed signing of an agreement with Russia, the original builders of the steel plant.
The Chairman, Ajaokuta Steel Branch, Comrade Mohammed Abdulsalam Jimoh while addressing newsmen on Independence Day in Lokoja yesterday, said: “Now that the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration has taken a bold step to bring the original builders of the plant back to complete the plant, I am optimistic and confident that in no distance time, what we have been dreaming and craving for , will come back to life.”
While appealing to President Buhari not to renege on his laudable plan for Ajaokuta steel company, Comrade Jimoh said, “I am calling on the management and staff of the steel company to support the president with prayers to enable him actualise his plan of going to Russia to sign an agreement for the completion of the integrated plant that will create enormous jobs and generate huge revenue for the government.”
The union leader said Ajaokuta steel workers deserve national honour for maintaining and protecting the plant from vandals, saying the technical audit conducted in 2010 and 2018 clearly indicated that all the equipment were intact.
“It is unacceptable for anybody to claim that the steel workers are redundant. If not for the workers, the plant could not have passed the several technical audit conducted to ascertain the standard of the plant,” he noted.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Arch. Olamilekan Adegbite has assured of the ministry’s support to the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the mining sector with funds from Solid Minerals Development Fund.
Adegbite who was speaking when the chairman of Mining/Solid Mineral Group and Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Otunba Babatunde Alatise and his team visited the ministry recently said, “The fund we have is to help the small scale miners to be able to achieve their goals. The fund is there, it has not grown. We have met with the board of Solid Minerals Development Fund (SMDF). We will look at the concept, so we can give out part of this fund.”
He said the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is willing to support the ministry with substantial fund that the industry will be proud of just as it supported the agriculture sector through Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Assets Sharing Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL).
Otunba Alatise urged the ministry to work with the CBN to possibly expand the mandate of NIRSAL to include mining minerals and metals trading or have the CBN set up similar structures for the solid mineral industry.
