‘$4.5b Ajaokuta Steel Mill ‘ll be completed this year’

Nigeria is aiming to hand over the $4.5 billion Ajaokuta steel complex to private operators this year as part of a plan to kick start its industrial and mining industries, Minister of Solid Minerals Development Dr Kayode Fayemi has said.

Construction of Ajaokuta, which lies on the Niger River and was supposed to have an installed capacity of 5 million metric tons of steel a year, began in 1979.