The Sole Administrator of Ajaokuta Steel Complex, Sumaila Aka’aba, has said the Covid-19 pandemic has led to the delay in the arrival of Russian engineers expected to upgrade the steel plant.

The Sole Administrator, who stated this at the steel plant in Ajaokuta at the weekend, said the technical audit carried out in 2018 indicated that the status of the steel plant stood at 93.5 per cent, adding that the steel industry was ready for rehabilitation works to be carried out by the Russians.

The administrator declared that the integrated plant was technically intact and would bounce back to life once the rehabilitation works were carried out.

“Initially, you hear that Ajaokuta steel plant is at 98 per cent completion, but today it has come down to 95.3 per cent.

“Hopefully, as soon as the airspace restriction is over, the Russians will come back and do revalidation of the audit report submitted to them.

“After the revalidation they can now put pen on paper so that the project proper can commence,” he said.

He added that the Ajaokuta steel plant, just like any other plant in the world, could be upgraded and modernised to suite the present-day technological advancement.