Plans by the Nigerian government to concession its steel plant in Ajaokuta are being slowed by legal issues that have arisen from a London Court of Arbitration ruling on the ownership of the Ajaokuta Steel Complex, the country’s minister of solid mineral development has said.
Kayode Fayemi, said in Abuja, Nigeria’s political capital city, during an appearance before a joint Senate and House of Representatives Committee on Power, Steel Development and Metallurgy, that until all issues that emanated from the position of the London Court of Arbitration were addressed, it would be difficult to put up Ajaokuta Steel Complex for concession.
Fayemi, who was at the committee to defend the ministry’s 2018 budget said the ministry was working assiduously to bring the moribund steel complex back to life. He was responding to a question on when the plant will be brought back to life to function maximally.
The Federal Government and messrs Global Steel Holding Limited, an Indian firm, started negotiation for amicable resolution of the Ajaokuta Steel Complex ownership tussle in 2008.
