RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: NIGERIA NOW HAS 21 FUNCTIONAL STEEL MILLS - AGANGA

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr Olusegun Aganga, has told Nigerians that the country now has 21 functional steel mills. While Nigeria may have 21 steel mill sights (buildings), it is doubtful if the 21 steel mills are functional if we consider the power generation in Nigeria on which the steel mills depend to be functional.
 
On 11 November 2014, President Jonathan declared his intention to seek his Party nomination for February 14, 2015, Presidential election and he enumerated about one hundred items of his achievements in office in the past four years to justify his re-election. Concerning power generation, he declared under item 13 thus, "Our power generation and distribution companies have now been privatized. We are firmly on the road to guaranteed regular power supply in the months ahead. This our bold move is paying off!" However, in the 2015 Budget submitted to the National Assembly for approval, the President is asking for thirty-five million, three-hundred and forty-four thousand, eight-hundred and fifty-five million naira for plant and generator fuel to produce electricity for Presidential villa. If the President's policy *is firmly on the road to guaranteed regular power supply in the months ahead* for Nigerians, why should the President envisage to spend almost N 36 million to buy plant and generator fuel to supply his presidential villa with electricity? It may not be necessary to answer that question as the Punch online of Thursday, 8 January 2015, had this headline: Power Supply Drops to 2,800 MW. Thereafter, readers were informed that power supply from national grid to households and businesses in the country tumbled below 3,000 megawatts... Specifically, power generation fell to 2,948.45MW on Tuesday, 6 January 2015, while 2,880.31MW  was sent out, according to data obtained from the Presidential Task Force on power, on Wednesday. As of 29 December 2014, 4,389.7 MW was generated out of which 4, 112.29MW was sent out. Punch reminded readers that the country (Nigeria) achieved the highest peak generation of 4,517.6MW of electricity on 23 December 2012. With the amount of electricity generated in Nigeria, it is highly impossible to get one functional steel mill in Nigeria not to talk of twenty-one. You cannot fry AKARA (baked beans) without oil just as you cannot get functional steel mill without electricity. Aganga, off course, is a magician like a typical Nigerian officials who are very clever in conjuring chickens out of handkerchief.   
 

---

Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2015 07:53:03 +0100
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: NIGERIA NOW HAS 21 FUNCTIONAL STEEL MILLS - AGANGA
From: alukome@gmail.com
To: africanworldforum@googlegroups.com; USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com; NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com; naijaintellects@googlegroups.com; OmoOdua@yahoogroups.com; Raayiriga@yahoogroups.com; YanArewa@yahoogroups.com; nigerianID@yahoogroups.com; nidan-group@googlegroups.com; ekitipanupo@yahoogroups.com; NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com

Chuks Collins:

Don't be lost - since you are so interested only in the South-East, go home and find out how many steel rolling mills are situated there! :-)

But to spare you some effort - following which you can verify - at least in 2002,  of the 13 rolling mills, 7 mini mills and 2 integrated steel companies (a total of 22 steel companies):in the country: 

- there were three steel rolling mills in the South-East:  in Onitsha (Allied Steel Co.), Owerri (Metcombe Steel Co.) and Enugu (Nigersteel Co.), 

but there were also (in case you are interested), 

- three in the South-South: in Aladja-Ovwian (Delta Steel Co.,), in Asaba (General Steel Mill,) and in Eket (Qua Steel Products)

- four in North-Central: with one in Ajaokuta (Ajaokuta Steel Co. Ltd. ), two in Ilorin (Union Steel Co., Kwara Commercial, Metal and Chemical Industries) and one in Jos (Jos Steel Rolling Company)

- two in the North-West: in Kano (Nigerian Spanish Eng. Co.,)  and Katsina (Katsina Steel Rolling Co)

- one in Abuja (Baoyao Futurelex))

and the rest (nine) are  

- in the South-West, with three in Ikeja alone (Asiastic Manarin Ind, Continental Iron & Steel Co.,, Universal Steel Co,),  two each in Ikorodu (Kew Metal Industries,, Mayor Eng. Co.,) and Otta (Federated Steel Industry, Selsametal), and one each in Ibadan (Alliance Steel Co.) and Oshogbo (Oshogbo Steel Co)

Much of this information requires updating, particularly with respect death. resurrection and birth of some of the rolling mills and integrated mills - and I am doing so presently - but the above gives an indication of the steel companies' national spread. (See: http://www.afristeel.org/NIGERIAN%20STEEL%20INDUSTRY%20-%20HISTORICAL%20DEVELOPMENT.pdf)

After electricity, the iron and steel industry is CRITICAL to national technological development - and again, we got to strive to get it right.

And there you have it.

Bolaji Aluko

Chemical Engineer

On Sat, Jan 31, 2015 at 8:05 AM, Chuks Collins <ceesmart62@gmail.com> wrote:

Am a bit lost. Please how many of this steel mills are located within South East?

Cheers

Chuks

Sent from my iPad

On Jan 30, 2015, at 8:55 PM, Okwukwe Ibiam <o.ibiam@gmail.com> wrote:

Nigeria now has 21 functional steel mills – Aganga

 

January 30, 2015 by Agency Report 15 Comments

   

 

Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga
| credits: File copy

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, on Thursday said the number of functional steel mills in the country had increased to 21 from less than five a few years ago due to the implementation of the Nigerian Industrial Revolution Plan.

He said this when he inaugurated a N60bn integrated steel rolling mill in Sagamu, Ogun State built by Standard Metallurgical Company, adding that the government was committed to repositioning the steel sector to access a substantial share of the global wealth of the industry, estimated at $10tn.

"Before this administration came on board, we had less than five functioning steel rolling mills and no cold-rolled steel mill; but today there are more than 15 functioning steel rolling mills producing reinforced bars; about three functioning cold rolled steel mills producing cold rolled flat sheets; and about three producing or about to commence the production of wire coils. This is a visible evidence that our policies are working," Aganga said.

According to him, steel is at the heart of any country's economic development and is one of the most important materials widely used for both domestic and industrial purposes throughout the world, hence the priority given to the sector in the NIRP.

He said, "In addition to accelerating the industrial development of a nation, a vibrant steel sector contributes to the growth of the Gross Domestic Product and exploitation of Nigeria's abundant natural resources.

"A vibrant steel sector also generates economic activities in downstream industries, creates job opportunities and acquisition of technical skills, and helps in the transfer of technology and provision of machine parts and tools. This particular project is being executed with 100 per cent locally-sourced raw materials."

The minister noted that the establishment of the first phase of the SMC steel mill and the ground-breaking of the second phase would complement the company's existing investments in the agri-business sub-sector, pointing out that the mill ranked among the largest private sector investments in the steel sector in Nigeria.

Aganga said, "I am assuring existing investors like SMC and prospective ones of government's support in the pursuit of self-sufficiency in local steel production. The implementation of game changers in the sector is already opening up a lot of downstream sector activities, with the attendant massive job opportunities and economic empowerment for our engineers, technicians, artisans and fabricators alike.

"To date, a number of sectorial policies have been developed under the NIRP. The Sugarcane to Sugar under the National Sugar Master Plan has attracted over $3bn in investments."

--

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.