House of Representatives Joint Committee investigating the arbitrary increase of cement price in the country has berated the Federal Competition Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) for laxity and inefficiency which significantly contributed to the high cost of the commodity.
The panel also demanded documents on cost of production from major manufacturers in the industry to justify the price of the commodity in the market.
The committee stated this when the group managing director of Dangote Cement Company, Arvind Pathack and managing director of Lafarge Cement, Ibrahim Aminu as well as the FCCPC appeared at its investigative hearing at the weekend.
The joint committee’s chairman, Hon. Jonathan Gaza Gaza, blamed the high price of cement on the inaction of FCCPC which failed to protect Nigerians against middlemen who sell the commodity for as high as N14,000 after purchasing it for N6,000 at the factory.
“We are extremely hopeful that this engagement will lead to a reduction in the price of cement. FCCPC has slept on their functions so far, their inactivity and non-responsiveness to prices is what has put Nigeria where we are today,” he said.
To the manufacturing companies, the lawmaker said: “We want to make sure they bring the total documents we requested to ascertain their day to day production to be able to have a good idea of how much it actually costs to produce a bag of cement,” Gaza said.
The committee resolved to visit production plants of the companies after going through their books to ascertain the cost of production with a view to determining a fair price of cement for all Nigerians.
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