President of Nigeria, Mr Goodluck Jonathan, said that Federal Government had developed an industrial blue print to ensure the complete development of the iron and steel industry to serve as a catalyst for the domestic and industrial development of the country.
Jonathan spoke after commissioning the 700,000 tonnes 5-Stand Tandem Cold Rolled Steel Plant, built by Wempco Steel Mill Limited at Ibafon, Ogun State, noting that the country would be producing about 12 million tonnes of liquid steel by 2020. He said that steel was one of the most important materials used widely for both domestic and industrial purposes throughout the world, explaining that this was why the Federal Government planned to develop the complete ecosystem of this sub-sector. He added that his administration has approved the Minerals and Metals Development Road Map, which was recently presented to the public stipulating time-bound targets for the sector, the strategies to be adopted would ensure the accomplishment of the set objectives of increasing steel production of three million tonnes of liquid steel by the end of this year and progressively increase to 12 million tonnes by 2020. According to him, the steel sector was at the heart of his administration’s national development endeavor.
He concluded that the building of the steel plant as the single largest private sector investment in the steel sector, and a another milestone in our determination to reposition our steel sector to play a pivotal role in our match towards industrialization and national transformation.
