Tuesday, February 20, 2024 -The Nigerian government on Tuesday laid out the possibility of opening the borders to enable cement importation if Nigeria’s cement manufacturers refuse to reduce the price of the commodity in the country.
Cement Manufacturers had spelt out the
conditions that the Nigerian government must meet before the retail price of a
50kg bag of cement could go down to between N7000 and N8000.
The warning was given to David Umahi, the
Minister of Works, after a meeting with leading manufacturers on Monday in
Abuja.
However, the Minister of Housing and Urban
Development, Arc Ahmed Dangiwa, while speaking on Tuesday in Abuja at an
emergency meeting held with cement and building materials manufacturers, noted
that the key input materials for cement production such as limestone, clay,
silica sand, and gypsum sourced within the borders, should not be dollar-rated.
The Minister explained that it was aware of
the macroeconomic challenges facing the country some of the key components of
producing building materials, especially cement, are locally sourced, and
considers the recurring disproportionate increase in the price of cement as
unacceptable and unreasonable.
He said the price of gas that manufacturers
used as an excuse should not be because gas is a raw material found within the
country and the excuse of an increase in mining equipment should not come up
because equipment bought by the manufacturers had been used for decades and not
just purchased every day.
Dangiwa said the border was closed to the
importation of cement to help local manufacturers, saying if the government
decided to open it back for mass importation, prices of cement would crash and
local manufacturers would be gravely affected.
He called on the manufacturers to be more
patriotic adding that "The challenges you speak of, many countries are
facing the same challenges and some even worse than that but as patriotic
citizens, we have to rally around whenever there is a crisis to change the
situation.
“The gas price you spoke of, we know that we
produce gas in the country the only thing you can say is that maybe it is not
enough. Even if you say about 50 percent of your production cost is spent on
gas prices, we still produce gas in Nigeria it’s just that some of the
manufacturers take advantage of the situation. As for the mining equipment that
you mentioned, you buy equipment and it takes years and you are still using it.
“The time you bought it maybe it was at a
lower price but because now the dollar is high you are using it as an excuse.
Honestly, we have to sit down and look at this critically. The demand and
supply should be good for you because the government stopped the importation of
cement, they stopped the importation in order to empower you to produce
more."
“Otherwise if the government opens the
border for mass importation of cement, the price would crash but you would have
no business to do and at the same time the employment generation would go down.
So these are the kinds of things you have to look at, the efforts of government
in ensuring things go well,” the Minister added.
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