The Cement Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (CMAN) claims that efforts are underway to lower cement prices, making the commodity more accessible to Nigerians.
As a result, the Association asked Nigerians to be patient until essential actions are done to address the country’s high cement prices.
After a courtesy visit to President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, CMAN Chairman Mohammed Bello made the comment in an interview with State House Correspondents.
According to Bello, “Cement is reckoned to be the widest used resource in the world, second only to water and the main issue with Nigeria in the past years from the time of President Obasanjo, when private companies came on board as cement producers because, before then, it was only the multinationals.
“I would like to congratulate Dangote and BUA and also urge them to be steadfast in making the commodity available to Nigerians because they are also Nigerians that have invested so much in this industry.
“I want to urge Nigerians to be a little bit more patient because the pricing of cement has to do with demand and supply; even if the producer decides to give people cement at the lowest cost or even free, people will still take advantage as long as the demand is there.
“There are a lot of constructions going on, government policies are good and very soon we will be in a good situation to be able to cross the line, where the pricing issue is concerned.”
On his part, the Chairman of one of the cement manufacturing companies in the country, BUA Group, Abdulsamad Rabiu, “On the price of cement, I know everybody is talking about the high price in Nigeria, It is because of course, we do not have enough capacity.
“When we started production at our new plant in Sokoto a few weeks ago, we decided to actually reduce the price of cement by N350 per bag and that is about 10 percent of the price so, today our bag of cement is N3050 X-factory.
“Yet, that has not reflected in the market simply because the other two producers have actually not reduced their own prices of cement so we are having challenges there and another thing that is happening is, we have reduced but it is the dealers and distributors that are actually making the money so it is a big issue for us.
“These are the kind of things that we want Cement Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (CMAN) and the cement producers to come together and look at, so as to bring down the price of cement”, he explained.
