Rep has approved N2bn for ajaokuta concession.

Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi
MINES AND STEEL
HOME TOP NEWS Reps appropriated N2bn for Ajaokuta concession ―Fayemi
Reps appropriated N2bn for Ajaokuta concession ―Fayemi stated this day of
March 11, 2018
SAYS ATTACK ON MINISTRY OVER CO
THE Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi has revealed that the House of Representatives duly appropriated the sum of N2,096,500.00 for the concession of the Ajaokuta Steel Complex in the 2017 budget, wondering why the same House has now turned around to attack the ministry for implementing the law.
Dr Fayemi who disclosed this in Abuja said both the ministry and the National Assembly had been on the same page regarding the need to concession the Steel Complex, adding that the ministry had been canvassing the concession option in all its meetings and sectoral debates with the lawmakers.
He said the government had taken a decision not to spend an additional one dollar on Ajaokuta since over $8 billion dollars had been sunk into the project by successive administrations since 1982.
The minister said government decided to give the complex to a credible operator with proven technical capacity and financial wherewithal to run it more profitably, saying this necessitated the appropriation of over N2 billion dollars for the concession in the 2017 appropriation duly passed into law by the same lawmakers now opposed to the concession.
According to him, “we are just implementing what was passed by the National Assembly that is why we are surprised that we have been subjected to an unwarranted attack over the matter in the last one week.”
Dr Fayemi said the March 1, 2018 sectoral debate which himself and the Minister of State, Honourable Abubakar Bawa Bwari, could not attend, and for which they duly notified the lawmakers, was the first and only time they would be absent at such debates, having attended four previously, with focus on Ajaokuta and the steel sector.
The Minister stated that most of the allegations made against him, the Minister of State and the Ministry officials were not only unfounded but malicious.