A call has gone to the federal government to expedite actions towards supporting indigenous manufacturers in local capacity building for the steel industry in Nigeria.
The Chairperson of KAM Holding, Alhaja Bolanle Yusuf, who made the call at the official takeover of the Standard Metallurgical Company (SMC) by KAM Steel Integrated Company Limited at Igbafa village in Sagamu local government area of Ogun State.
The transfer of ownership to KAM Steel, an Integrated Company under the KAM Holding, an indigenous investment specialized in the manufacturing of iron and steel products, was witnessed by major stakeholders in the industry.
Alhaja Yusuf said the acquisition was part of the KAM Steel to increase its capacities and reposition Nigeria as a self-sufficient nation, with the target to create 10,000 jobs for Nigerians.
She noted that “If Nigeria must come out of the wilderness of poverty, unemployment and insecurity among other social vices, the federal government must deploy its machinery to support local manufacturers in their bids to survive and grow”.
The federal government should continue to provide the enabling environment and support for continuing the actualization of the vision of the highly committed Nigerian behind this project.
“The Steel Industry being a very important integral part of the nation’s economy necessary for speedy economic growth and socio-infrastructural development, there is need for government to focus more on the sector, recognize and declare Iron and Steel as national products to boots our foreign exchange earnings in the face of dwindling price of Oil in the global market”.
It is our target to create about 10,000 jobs to promising Nigerians in the next coming months as a way of complementing government’s efforts in tackling youths’ restiveness, boost Internally Generated Revenue, as well as promoting our Corporate Social Responsibilities in the society.
She commended President Muhammadu Buhari and his economic team for adopting holistic policies capable of strengthening local manufacturers especially sustaining the boarder closure policy which has further made Nigeria to be self-sufficient during the trying period of COVID-19 pandemic.
In his remark, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Architect Olamilekan Adegbite, said, “the management of the Ministry has been working assiduously towards the enactment of the Nigeria Metallurgical Industry Bill in order to have an enabling law for effective regulation of the Metal Sector in Nigeria.
He, therefore, solicited for the support of all stakeholders’ especially metal sector operators in order to realize this. The role of iron and steel industry in national industrialization is vital. This is because steel remains the basic raw materials for a host of manufacturing activities and other economic developmental windows.
“It is worthy to note that the Federal government from the onset, established policy formulation vis-à-vis the establishment of Metallurgical industry due to local availability of major raw materials input”.
He said, “government is encouraging Metal sector operators, especially local producers of metallurgical Mineral raw materials and steel metal products to synergize with miners towards ensuring local beneficiation of raw materials in Nigeria”.
“This would put an end to the “dig it and ship it” syndrome and boost downstream activities in the metal sector for jobs and wealth creation” The Metallurgical Operators must muster the courage to partner with the government towards the development of the sector.
Our fiscal measures under the federal ministry of finance must deliberately control the influx of sub-standard products by putting higher tariffs on imported metal products and materials to protect the local content policy and by extension our local producers.
The FGN is also encouraging all-metal sector operators to comply with the set standard for the production of all metal products in order to ensure that our local products compete favourably in the international market. In order to do so, metal operators, artisans and other skilled operators in the metal sector are encouraged to sharpen their skills via the metallurgical training centres in Nigeria The FGN is working towards eradicating the import of metallurgical raw materials and products that can be produced locally and support the development of home-grown technologies in line with local content.
The KAM industry was doing well and has the potential to supply a sizeable volume of the steel requirements of the nation The then SMC was known for compliance with set standards and producing quality products as records have it that SMC produced some of the steel components used in the construction of the National Stadium Abuja. “The event we are witnessing today is an example of one of the steps to change the narrative of the minerals and metals sector.
KAM steel integrated company limited is taking a giant step towards the achievement of the aims and objectives of the present administration. The acceleration of industrial development lies primarily in the private sector while the government provides the enabling environment. The General Controller of SMC, Hussein Nurudeen said the transfer offers greater opportunity for Nigeria to export steel products. He described products from the plant as “very high quality and standard.”
