The Ministry of Power and Steel has had a long and eventful history.

At independence in I960, it was called the Federal Ministry of Mines and Power with responsibility for the development of the nation's mineral resources including oil. A decade later, petroleum resources and steel development received tremendous boost by successive administrations leading to the formation of various agencies and parastatals to oversee their development. Thereafter, the Ministry metamorphosed into the Federal Ministry of Mines, Power and Steel . In the early I990's the mineral resources was excised and transferred to the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and a new unit, the Aluminum Smelter Company was added to the Ministry. The Ministry also took a new name - Federal Ministry of Power and Steel.

2. The Federal Ministry of Power and Steel is an economic Ministry charged with the statutory responsibility of policy initiation, formulation and implementation for the development of Power, Steel and Aluminum sectors of the economy. The Ministry therefore has the following mandate:

•  provision of adequate and steady power supply to the urban and rural areas for industrial development and improving the quality of life of the citizenry;

(ii) provision of iron and steel as well as allied metallurgical products for the nation's manufacturing, building and construction industries;

•  accelerating the local sourcing of steel raw materials and development of same for utilization in steel and allied industries;

•  developing the aluminum industry to enable it make available to the domestic market the aluminum products required for building and construction as well as for industrial and domestic uses;

•  contributing to the development of non-oil exports and thereby helping to diversify the nation's economic base.