Nigeria’s government and manufacturers have worked out plans to lower the escalating price of cement nationwide.
Urgently, the three cement manufacturers: Dangote Cement Plc, BUA Cement Plc and Larfarge Africa Plc agreed that cement should cost no more than ₦7,000 and ₦8,000 per 50kg bag, depending on the location.
It includes fixing roads and lowering the cost of gas and import duties on relevant raw materials.
The commitment emerged during a meeting with the major cement manufacturers on Monday in Abuja.
Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, and his counterpart, Minister of Trade and Investment, Mrs Doris Uzoka-Anite, and the three major cement manufacturers – Dangote Plc, BUA Plc and Lafarge Plc who jointly signed a communiqué aimed at pushing down prices.
According to the document, government recognised.the challenges facing the manufacturers.
These include cost of gas, high import duty on spare parts, bad road network, high foreign exchange and smuggling of cement to neighbouring nations.
Therefore, the meeting concluded that the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment would seek some remedies from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the cost of gas and import duties.
The Federal Ministry of Works will give more attention to fixing of roads, especially around the locations of the manufacturers.
On cement smuggling, the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment was to deepen the engagement with the National Security Adviser on how to stop the menace.
The meeting also agreed that the current high price of cement was abnormal in some locations nationwide.
“Ideally, cement retail prices should not cost more than ₦7,000.00 to ₦8,000.00/ 50kg bag of cement,” it was said.
Therefore, the three cement manufacturers: Dangote Cement Plc, BUA Cement Plc and Larfarge Africa Plc have agreed that cement cost should not be more than between ₦7,000.00 and ₦8,000.00/50kg bag, depending on the location.
In addition, government advised cement manufacturers to set up a price monitoring mechanism to ensure compliance, and manufacturers have willingly accepted to do so and sanction any distributor or retailer found wanting.
Government expects the agreed price to drop after securing its interventions on the challenges of the manufacturers on gas, import duty, smuggling and better road network.
Furthermore, they agreed that at least six more players had to be introduced into the cement manufacturing sector to make the market more competitive and product more available.
The BUA representative, Mr Kabiru Rabiu, Group Executive Director, disclosed that BUA was preparing to release six million tonnes of cement within the next three weeks to make the product more available nationwide.
The stakeholders agreed to reconvene in 30 days to review progress made.
