Cement manufacturers have agreed to slash the price of the commodity to between N7,000 and N8,000 within the country after federal government’s intervention.
This was the resolution of the three-hour meeting between the manufacturers and the minister of works, David Umahi and the minister of industry trade and investment Dr. Doris Uzoka-Anite, at the ministry of works.
The manufacturers identified cost of gas, high import duty on spare parts, bad road network, high foreign exchange rate and the smuggling of cement across borders as factors responsible for the hike.
The communique read by Umahi said: “The cement manufacturers and the government noted that the current high price of cement is 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.
“Therefore, the three cement manufacturers – Dangote Cement Plc, BUA Cement Plc and Larfarge Africa Plc – have agreed that cement cost will not be more than between ₦7,000 and ₦8,000 per 50kg bag depending on the location.
“Going forward, the government advised cement manufacturers to set up a price monitoring mechanism to ensure compliance, and manufacturers have willingly accepted to do so and to sanction any of her distributors or retailers found wanting.”
It further said government expects the agreed price to drop after securing government’s interventions on the challenges of the manufacturers on gas, import duty, smuggling, and better road network.
The government, as part of the intervention, is also going to encourage at least six other cement-manufacturing companies to spring up.
On the part of the government, he said the federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment will approach the President to address the cost of gas and import duties.
The Federal Ministry of Works is to also give more attention to fixing the roads, especially around the locations of the manufacturers.
The group managing director/chief executive officer of Dangote Cement Plc, Arvind Pathak, said the manufacturers had agreed to a window of 30 days to address the crisis.
The representative of BUA said the company is committed to bringing in an additional six million tonnes of cement in the next few weeks to dampen the pressure of supply.
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