Steel products for 7,000 telecom towers ‘ll be 100% locally sourced—Minister 

Ministry of Steel Development, and Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, are to partner to source for locally manufactured steel products for telecommunication infrastructures across the country. This was made known during the courtesy visit by the Minister of Steel Development, Prince Shuaibu Audu to the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, at the Ministry’s headquarters in Abuja. Audu said the collaboration by the the two Ministries is pivotal to the President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, basically to drive the use of local contents, which would strengthen the steel industry, reduce reliance on imported materials that causes high capital flight and weakening of the Naira, and also boost the capacity of local steel players in the country in order to provide effective services to the telecommunications sector in the construction of telecom towers across the country and other areas of mutual benefits.
He said “In terms of where we see areas of collaboration, I have seen your initiative and plans to build 90,000 kilometres of fibre optic cables across the country at a total cost of 3.3 trillion naira and 7,000 telecom towers to be installed nationwide by end-2025. We know that there will be a lot of value addition to Nigerians. During my official visit to Ogun State recently, I commissioned a Galvanized Steel Plant. These Galvanised Steel Plants are anti-rust, and they have capacity to be used for Telecom towers. We want these local players to be patronised, so we will appreciate if they are incorporated into this very important project. On technical skills development, we had training for welders and artisans. We are hoping that you can expand your innovation and digital training skills programme to be able to include some of these specialised skills that we have in the steel industry because some of our guys have the skills to erect telecoms towers.” 
In his response, the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, wholeheartedly welcomed the collaboration between both Ministries, describing it as long overdue and an enabler of President Tinubu’s vision for economic growth and job creation. Tijani also assured that beyond incorporating locally produced steel in the construction of the 7,000 telecom towers, the Ministry is focused on ensuring long-term sustainability of the projects by involving local players for maintenance of the infrastructure. “We will leverage this project to support the work you do. My goal is that for everything steel in this project, it should be 100 per cent locally sourced. What we need to do is to have a strong alignment, not just to the private sector but how we can develop critical sectors of the economy”, he said. Meanwhile, in the course of the two Ministers’ discussions they lled the plan to establish a Technology Hub within the Ajaokuta Industrial Park and Free Trade Zone, currently awaiting approval of Mr President, and the implementation of tailored capacity-building initiatives for artisans in the steel sector, aimed at fostering innovation, productivity, and job creation. Both ministers also agreed on the formation of a joint technical committee to ensure seamless implementation of the strategies and ensure synergy between both sectors.