Director General Standard Organisation of Nigeria SON, Mallam Farouk Salim has said that the move by the African Industrial Group, AIG, to set up an industrial steel plant in Nigeria, will create 10,000 worth of employment opportunities for youths in the country. Salim made this know during a working visit to the site. He said that it will not only create jobs worth 10,000 but it will aid the utilisation of the abundance of iron ore available in the country. Salim while commending foreign investors, he condemns the lackadaisical attitude Nigerians have towards investing in the country. He further stated that the AIG investment is one of the biggest investment outside the oil sector and would also expand Nigeria’s exporting power.
He said “this is the largest investment outside the oil sector. What that means is based on what they’re doing, they will not only produce more than when Nigeria needs high quality products, but they will export and what we export we are saving money in two ways. We’re saving money by earning money and we are saving money by stopping the idea of taking our sources to go and buy products and bring back to the country. We, in the standard of organisation of Nigeria, our priority is to make the Nigerian industry not only safe for the people that work for it, competitive for the producers and the investors. More than anything else, or just what we need in this country. We are probably the sixth largest country in the world of about 200 million people and we are surrounded by West African neighbours. So totally our population moves about 500 million if we add the whole of west Africa. The opportunities are there. All we need is similar companies like African natural resources and mines to identify this and actually believe in Nigeria and invest in it so that our people can be gainfully employed. So we can produce what we are going to use and export to our neighbours.
“This is why important that we need to understand, if this company starts production which they will start the production very soon, they will employ thousands of people based on the estimate here about 10,000 Nigerians will be employed for this. For you to understand the impact of that the whole Kujeni town, if they produce all the employees, they will not be enough to cover this. They will come here to make a living. They will come here to make Nigeria great. A country doesn’t become great because we import every thing. It doesn’t become great because we think everything. It doesn’t become great because our children go overseas to make a living. It becomes great when industries grow in organisation, people pay taxes, they build community. African natural sources and mines right now means a lot to this community. To start with, it means a lot to Kaduna state. It means more to Nigeria as a whole because we have many Nigerian steel. It is not a scrap. It is a steel made out of Nigerian resources. It is sustainable.
The individuals that invest in this country spends hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. They didn’t take it to Swiss-land, they didn’t organise a big party. But what they did was they invest in the future of this country. “These Individuals speak different language. They even have an origin from another country. They have been in this country for 50 years and they have contributed as much more than some of us full blooded Nigerians. I am very emotional about this because I have been fighting, struggling standard organisation in the last 50 years has been fighting. We are telling Nigerians how this country can be great, how this country will be safe, how this country will be respected and promoted is through share investment in our people, in our industries and in our natural resources.
There are hundred of places in Nigeria that have different natural resources that require a 100million dollars and 500million dollars to invest and bring that community out. Salim further stated that the AIG’s investment will also enable the Federal Government to gain remunerated taxes.
“Africa perspective probably half a million people directly benefitting from this industry. Now this industry will pay taxes in three or four different way; federal taxes , pay state taxes. They probably pay local government taxes, and their employee will be pay taxes. So now the government is going to get money in this activity in so many ways. You have society here. Everybody in this place that is willing to work will have one way or the other will have an opportunity to work. You will be the food seller, you will be the market person selling goods, you will be the person selling the property just in case their employees will start buying property here to live. So the chief of Kujeni will have his hands full very soon. Because those farmlands here very soon, with the occupied by people buying to build houses because you want to come to work here. Nobody wants to drive from Kaduna or from Abuja everyday to come to work.
If people can invest in this country, believe in our country, we’ll have millions of employed people, we will have less bandits, less cultist, less separatists, less unemployed youth taking drugs and causing problems in the neighbourhood”, he added. Meanwhile, in a statement by the group managing director of AIG Alok Gupta, he stated that the project will be solely done using Nigeria’s indigenous raw materials. Gupta said: “AIG have decided to go for Backward Integration by setting up an Integrated Steel Plant by utilising the abundant Iron Ore available in the country.
“The DRI (Direct Reduced Iron) produced by ANRMI will be a direct substitute for ferrous scrap for production of steel.
“ANRMI will be generating 35MW of power using the heat generated in the DRI Process. The Power generated will be in excess of captive power requirement for the DRI plant. DRI will be used to produce pure steel devoid of any impurities found in the scrap and this will put Nigeria on the world map of crude steel producers.
“ANRML is one of Nigeria’s largest non-on FDI and will serve as catalyst for development of steel and manufacturing sector as a whole.
“We also expect this project to have lasting social and economic benefits by means of jobs, social infrastructure, skill development, contribution to GDP and more important saving of scarce foreign exchange by means of import substitution. “This is just the start of our long journey and I would like to thank all the people who supported us so far and we hope that you will keep supporting us in setting up of this Integrated Steel Plant.”
