Delta State Government said Stallion Group has taken over the ownership of the moribund Delta Steel Company located at Uvwian-Aladjia in Udu local government area of Delta State.
The State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa also disclosed that plans are underway to resuscitate the moribund Bendel Steel Company, Glass Company and other companies as ways of creating job opportunities and contributing to the economic growth of our state.
Okowa gave the hint when he played host to the management of Stallion Group led by its managing director Sunil Vaswan in Asaba,Delta State capital.
BusinessDay reports that the Chief Executive Officer of Premium Steel and Mines Limited, a subsidiary of Stallion Group, Prasanta Mishra was among the top management functionaries of the company that visited the governor.
The governor who spoke to newsmen said government had to assemble some of its team to share ideas with the management of the company on his bid to taking over the steel company.
“The meeting was very successful, we had the opportunity to ask questions as the group (Stallion Group) has taken over the Delta Steel Complex, they are already in the process of re-developing the plant in an effort to restart it by December, 2016, we asked a lot of questions to ensure that stakeholders are carried along.
“We are satisfied with their responses and we know that the Stallion Group is a strong group and their presence in Nigeria has been positive, they have manufactured a lot of great products.
“We will monitor the activities of the company because, it is very important to the state and we need to create an economic hub and the DSC has the capacity of boosting economic activities within the Udu/Warri area.
“We are also looking at the resuscitation of Bendel Steel Company, the Glass Company and other companies as ways of creating job opportunities and contributing to the economic growth of our state,” the Governor said.
He opined that the the Steel Company aligns with the state government agenda noting that the first thing is employment generation for youths, which government believe has a lot of multiplier effects beyond the issue of employment as they are diversifying into power generation and petro-chemical production.
Earlier, the management of Stallion Group lauded the state governor’s commitment to speedy industrialization of the state.
Sunil Vaswani, the managing director of Stallion Group who handed down the commendation assured that all processes have been put in place for the quick resuscitation of the moribund multi-billion naira Delta Steel Company.
Vaswani said the governor’s commitment inspired the company to work towards making the DSC operational in December, 2016.
“We had a very fruitful meeting with the government of Delta State, it was encouraging and we will like to start operation December, 2016,” adding, “the plant is in a very bad shape, but we are engaging a very good company who was there when the company was made in the 1970s and 1980s, to make the plant functional.” he stated.
He also assured that despite the dilapidated nature of DSC, the December, 2016 date was feasible for the company to come on stream as the company which was set it up in the 1970s has been contacted to be involved in its resuscitation.
IDRIS UMAR MOMOH
