The Director-General of the National Metallurgical Development Centre, Jos, Plateau State, Prof Linus Asuquo, speaks with Sami Olatunji on the challenges around research and development in the steel and minerals sector
What role does the National Metallurgical Development Centre play in the mining sector?
The National Metallurgical Development Centre was established in 1973 as a research laboratory for the steel industry in the country. But in 1992, there was a decree – Decree No 60 – making the National Metallurgical Development Centre a research and development centre for the minerals and metallurgical sector and that is what we are. On mining, you know there are more than 44 minerals in the country in about 500 locations. The place of the National Metallurgical Development Centre is to do research on these minerals by characterisation of these minerals, possible processing of these minerals and adding values to these minerals. Before now, some of the minerals in the country are just taken raw outside of the country. By doing that, we lost a lot of money. What we do now is to process and add value to the minerals. That is the role of the National Metallurgical Development Centre. We add value to the minerals in the country; thereby, improving the economy of the country.
Nigeria can benefit significantly from the steel industry through domestic production and exports, but this is not the case. What would you say has gone wrong?
Steel production is a key to industrialisation in any country. You cannot really develop a country without steel. There is hardly anything that steel is not used for or in the production of any material. So, steel is very significant in the development of any country. Many years ago, some people thought about the industrialisation of the country, I don’t think we have achieved much in that area because the Ajaokuta Steel designed for this has not gained ground. I believe that before you produce steel, you have to start with iron. That is why the blast furnace was established. The blast furnace was mainly for iron production – liquid iron. Then, it moves from there to the steel plant, where a lot of work will be done to produce steel. Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon. This steel from the steel plant will be cast. If there has been steel production, most of the steel imported won’t have been so. That has really affected us economically. We are importing billions worth of steel and that affects the economy. The Ajaokuta steel has not been completed. Why? Many years ago, the Russians that built the company pulled out. In 2019, the president of this country re-negotiated with the Russian government to resuscitate the steel company. They were to come to do the technical audit to know what was working and what was not working. Immediately after that, there was COVID-19, and they could not come. Till now, I do not think they have come. So, that was also a big hindrance. You know the administration is coming to an end. We don’t know what will happen next. Right now, they are talking about the concession. They have been doing this concession for quite a while. But I think the best thing is to complete the plant. After the completion, they can privatise it. Government has no function in running a state plant but it can have a role to play as a stakeholder. But it should be run by the private sector to allow the plant to run as it should. We have been told it is up to 95 per cent completion. The government should privatise it after its completion. People are talking about scrapping it. That would be a disaster because billions of naira have been put into it. Many people said it is obsolete. But I believe that if the government has political will, it can be resuscitated.
The Sole Administrator of the Ajaokuta Steel Company, Sumaila Abdul-Akaba, recently said the size of the asset and quality of equipment installed in it can generate up to $6 billion should Nigeria decide to liquidate the company by selling it as scrap. Do you think the government should liquidate the company or continue with the concession attempt?
If you sell as scrap, you have nothing to gain. I believe what the government should do is put in strength and will to complete the plant. If that is done, people will be more interested in the plant. There are certain things we need to do because it is strategically necessary. By the time we put our foot down to complete it, we will see a reduction in unemployment and criminality.
What have been the previous challenges around past attempts to concession Ajaokuta Steel Plant?
It is the lack of political will. The government has the power to do it. I think it would be a great disaster and disservice to this country if we do not complete the steel plant.
What is the National Metallurgical Development Centre doing to boost the Nigerian steel industry?
We are doing a lot of research on the steel sector. The starting point is the raw materials. If you want to produce iron and steel, we need the raw materials. For instance, in the blast furnace, you need iron ore, coke, limestone and other raw materials for production. The starting point is getting these raw materials ready, and this is what we are doing. We have done a lot of research on iron ore. For instance, we did research on Itakpe iron ore. It is about 250 million tonnes. We also have iron ore in Akpaja, which is about three billion tonnes. We have also done research on limestones. We also work on other minerals in the country that would be useful. There is clay that can be used in the steel industry and pharmaceutical industry, among others. the National Metallurgical Development Centre is working.
What have been the major challenges for the centre in the area of research and development?
We have the challenge of funding. Research and development is capital intensive.
Countries have been putting a lot of money into research and development. It should not be less than three per cent of the GDP if we want meaningful research. In this country, we have been battling with 0.1 per cent. It was of recent the president increased it to 0.5 per cent but that is insignificant if you want to do meaningful research. We do not have grants aside from the budgetary allocation for the year. For 2023, what has been given to us is N128m, which cannot buy more than one piece of equipment. Research and development is capital intensive. I have been to South Africa and seen the level of research and development they are doing. That country understands the importance of research and development. For the steel industry to work, the National Metallurgical Development Centre has a vital role to play.
We also have the issue of obsolete equipment. Imagine the equipment bought in 1973, you do not expect them to function well. In 2018 when I went there and saw the place, it was overgrown with grasses. But I have tried to polish it a little. Although we have acquired some new equipment, it is not sufficient. So, we need adequate funding for the National Metallurgical Development Centre to have state-of-the-art equipment for processing, characterisation and analysis. So, we really need funding.
However, we want to appreciate the government. Through the MINDIVER in the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, we have acquired some equipment. But we still need more.
The centre signed an MoU with the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria, on the local production of armaments for the Nigerian armed forces. Any progress so far in this regard?
This was far back as 2020 when we were visited by the DG of DICON and his technical staff. What was agreed upon was that we could produce lead and zinc, which would be used for bullets, and we could also produce bullets. So, we signed an MoU to make it possible to do that. It is still on but it needs to be backed by funding. We have gone to the government to say we need funding to proceed with it. It would be a turning point for this country since they are importing them from China. The president had signed Executive Order 5 for local content. So, it would be a plus for the country if we start producing our local content. The lead is available in Plateau State. We have copper and zinc. It is just alloying all these elements to get brass. So, the potential is there. But the drawback is funding.
What is the centre doing to close the funding gap?
Well, I was with the House Committee on steel recently. I made a presentation to the House, but they said the economy is bad and all that. So, we are waiting. We cannot manufacture money. We really need funding because the National Metallurgical Development Centre is a crucial parastatal for the improvement and industrialisation of this country. We cannot continue to be a consuming country. We have to be a producing country. We need to be self-sufficient. India was poorer than us but now they produce their own food. Let us start doing things ourselves.
