Olamilekan Adegbite, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development had in July 2021 said the plant would function before the end of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
But this according to the minister is no longer feasible this year.
Adegbite made this known while addressing state house correspondents in Abuja, on Thursday, March 31, 2022.
The minister blamed the setback in the completion of the project on the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
He said the FG had before the pandemic convinced Russia to complete the steel facility but could not proceed with the negotiations.
The minister explained that after the lockdown, the government moved to continue the negotiations with Russia but the Russia-Ukraine war stalled the effort.
The agreement to revive the steel company in Kogi state was reached during a meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and President Vladimir Putin in Russia in 2019.
The deal with the Eastern Europe country involved a $2 million fee for a technical audit required to ascertain the state of the facility before work would begin.
The steel industry was conceived in 1958 by the Federal Government to serve as a stimulus to national development and economic boost to the industrial growth of the country.
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