Harboursandport.com: Lagos--- A member of the Senate Committee on Local Content, Chukwuka Utazi, has frowned at the abandonment of the steel plants at Aladja in Delta State and Ajaokuta, in Kogi, noting that it is affecting full implementation of the local content policy.
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| Sen. Chukwuka Utazi, member Senate committee of Local Content |
Disclosing this in Lagos, Utazi said the absence of reboust steel plants in the country is responsible for over 70 percent of the Total Nigeria Plc owned Egina platform which recent berthed at the Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics (LADOL) Base, to be done outside the country.
He noted the nation would have saved a hug part of the $16 billion total cost if the two steel plants were functional.
He stressed that the LODAL base has what is needed to executive such projects, pointing out the need for the federal government to take a second look at the two steel plants.
According to him, “We are working on the issue of steel production, especially as it concern Aladja and Ajaokuta because you cannot get this kind of project done without doing things yourself. We have been told that they moved to and fro between Nigeria and Korea, if we have the steel plants working we should not be going over there.”
The Senator however commended the initiative and efforts of the promoters of the project because of the revenue generation and employment opportunity attached to Egina platform.
He also stressed the need for government to ensure feature projects like the Egina platform are wholly completed in the country in the future to avoid capital flight.
“We are happy about the project, it is a very good job that they are doing here; outside all this, I will also want to think as a Nigerian, what comes to us at the end of the day. On the issue of local content, how long will it be for what we are being shown here to be replicated wholly in Nigeria? Until that is done, the essence of local content is of no used.”
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