Speaking at a meeting with the media at the NSE headquarters in Abuja, the President of the organisation, Margaret Oguntala, said it was heartwarming that the Bola Tinubu government was already responding to its call to revamp the Ajaokuta Steel Company in Kogi State.
However, the first female president of the NSE since its inception over 65 years ago pointed out that other steel companies such as Aladja Steel in Delta and the steel rolling mill in Oshogbo, Osun State also need to be rehabilitated.
The NSE had in December 2023 demanded that its members should be involved in the acceleration and reactivation as well as modernization of the critical steel company.
But Oguntala, during the briefing, stated that the government already heeded the call and had incorporated some of the engineering body’s members to ensure the rehabilitation of the firm.
“Since after the summit, the government has taken some steps to resuscitate and revamp the Ajaokuta steel company. We received an invitation from the Ministry of Steel Development. We received an invitation from them to join the task team for the revamping. We also received an invitation from one of the consultants that they are using, who also felt that NSE should be part of it.
“And we nominated some of our members, those who are experts in that field. We have one of them who retired from Ajaokuta steel company as a director, who has a lot of knowledge. And we have received feedback that this member of ours is doing very well.
“So, I’m sure that work is ongoing. And, in short, the government has responded to that call to revamp the steel industry. As rightly observed, unless we have the Ajaokuta steel company up and running, and maybe Delta steel, Aladja and Oshogbo Steel Rolling mill, unless we have them up and running, we cannot hope to revamp the manufacturing sector.
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