The Nigerian Institute of Steel Development bill sponsored by Hon. Yusuf Ahmed Tijani Damisa has passed second reading on the floor of the House of Representatives, Abuja.
The Bill seeks to establish the Nigerian Institute of Steel Development, in Okene, to provide education and training to professionals and students in order to ensure operational at the leading edge in terms of research, innovation, marketing and competence development in the steel sector.
In his lead debate, he stated, “The idea to establish government-owned steel company in Nigeria was conceived in 1958. Many international organizations and consulting firms were commissioned at various times to study the feasibility of steel plants under the aegis of the Federal Ministry of Industries. Parallel efforts were also made to identify and analyse the principal raw materials needed for the steel industry.
“On 14th of April 1971, an extra-ministerial agency called the Nigerian Steel Development Authority (NSDA) was established by a Decree No.19 to focalize efforts required to actualize a steel plant. In 1979, NSDA was replaced with the National Steel Council which was made up of the Mining and Exploration Division based in Kaduna and the Metallurgical Development Centre based in Jos. And on 18th September, 1979, the Associated Ores Mining Company now the Nigerian Iron Ores Mining Company was established by Decree No.60.
“In spite of all these efforts put in place by the government, Nigeria has not fully exploited the immense economic opportunities of the sector.”
He also made reference to Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute which was established to train and develop the required manpower to manage the many agricultural and rural development projects in order to revive agricultural activities and productivity in Nigeria that has yielded positive results as the reason why the proposed Steel Development Institute should be established to transform the steel sector.
The key issue in the industry is that of proper identification and quality, as the steel specification majorly produced in Nigeria is the reinforcement bar. And this is because Nigeria has never had a prompt advisory service provider on materials, construction practices, interpretation of codes and creating an environment for better usage of steel by acquiring and disseminating knowledge about the best practices, which is one of the core objectives of this Bill.
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