This announcement came during a meeting between Umahi and Shuaib Audu, the Minister of Steel Development, held in Abuja on Tuesday, as reported in a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Minister, Orji Uchenna.

Umahi quoted the Minister by saying that, the ministry is exploring the possibility of Ajaokuta Steel contributing 16 percent of the materials required for the construction of concrete roads across the country.

“How do we  reactive Ajaokuta Steel? We are going into concrete road, in this concrete road, about 16 percent of it is from Steel while 30 percent is cement . We need a lot of money to start but we decided to face  it and God has given us an idea, we need about 35 billion dollars  to start . If we start waiting for FG it might become difficult. We did Return On Investment (ROI) , the profit we could have made, part of it will go to bank interest, we are looking at commercial bank but Federal Executive Council has to endorse it. If this could be done it means Mr President is actually living to his words and this is going to be possible.”

“One of the Renewed Hope Agenda of Mr President is to think outside the box, Mr President inherited a large chunk of debt from the past administration, the beauty about it is that he is not complaining, he knew how the country was before he took the job and how it is. The good thing is that if you have passion for something God will give you an idea.”

The statement indicated that both ministers agreed to collaborate and devise strategies to leverage the opportunities presented by the Ajaokuta Steel Plant for the enhancement of road infrastructure in Nigeria.

Emphasizing the potential benefits, Umahi noted that tapping into the steel industry’s opportunities would not only create employment and wealth for Nigerians but also foster industrialization on a global scale.