Ajaokuta steel company to provide 500,000 jobs, as govt plans operation after 40 years

Ajaokuta Steel

Commissioned for construction by President Alhaji Shehu Shagari in 1979, the Ajaokuta Steel Company is about to begin production of beams of steel and is expected to provide employment for half-a-million people.

According to the Social Aide to President Muhammadu Buhari, Lauretta Onochie, the project will provide about five hundred thousand jobs, meet local needs as well as exports demands.

In a recent tweet, she said, “Getting the facility off the ground will save Nigeria billions of dollars in steel imports. It will meet local needs as well as provide the much needed foreign exchange through exportation to other nations in need of steel. The Ajaokuta Steel Mill, is expected to provide employment to about 500,000 people. That is huge and laudable.”

Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited (ASCL), also referred to as Ajaokuta Steel Mill is located in Ajaokuta, is located in Ajaokuta, Kogi State, and it sits on a 24,000 hectares (59,000 acres) land. The venture which is the largest steel mill in Nigeria, has never produced any steel but has gulped about $8bn in the past forty years

After several failed efforts at privatise the company, the government of Nigeria took back control in 2016.The project has however remained non-operational  since then.