The Ukrainian Ambassador to Nigeria Mr Valeriy Aleksandruk has said that his country is ready to invest one billion dollars into Ajaokuta Steel Company in order to revive the plant.
This is according to a
statement by Mr Alex Okoh, Head, Public Communications, Bureau of Public
Enterprises (BPE) in Abuja on Thursday.
It said that the
ambassador made the disclosure when he paid a courtesy call on the Acting
Director General of the BPE, Mr Vincent Akpotaire.
It also stated that
Aleksandruk said that the Ukrainian company that built the plant
-Tiajpromexport (TPE) – had presented a proposal to the Federal Government to
that effect.
He said that the steel
company has a lot of potentials which his country wanted to take advantage of
and that already, meetings were on with relevant stakeholders in Nigeria for
the realisation of the planned takeover of the plant.
Aleksandruk emphasised
that Nigeria has a very good relationship with Ukraine especially in areas of
trade and investments adding that there was a big Nigerian community in his
country.
He, however, added
that Ukraine was ready to “open a new page in its relationship with Nigeria”
and pledged to assist the Bureau in its training needs to become a foremost
privatisation agency in Africa.
The statement said
that Akpotaire in his response, said that the Bureau would review the proposal
by the Ukrainian government.
He said it would also
review that of Morgan Stanley, the multinational financial services firm that
would provide the one billion dollar investment before taking any further
steps.
He added that the
Federal Government was desirous to get the Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited and
the Nigerian Iron Ore Mill Company (NIOMCO) Itakpe running.
Akpotaire urged the
Ukrainian Government to invest in other sectors of the Nigerian economy,
especially in developing the downstream of the steel sector that would service
several sectors including the automobile sector.
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