The Federal Government has threatened to open the borders to allow cement importation if Nigeria’s cement manufacturers fail to lower the country’s cement prices.
Ahmed Dangiwa, Minister of Housing and Urban Development, issued the threat on Tuesday, stating that critical raw materials for cement manufacture, such as limestone, clay, silica sand, and gypsum sourced within the country’s borders, should not be dollar-rated.
Dangiwa addressed them in Abuja during an emergency meeting with cement and building material manufacturers.
According to him, the price of gas that industries are claiming as an excuse is unsustainable because gas is a raw commodity found in the country.
He also stated that the excuse for an increase in mining equipment should be avoided because equipment purchased by manufacturers has been in use for decades and is not purchased daily.
The minister revealed that the border was blocked for cement imports to assist local manufacturers.
However, he stated that if the government decides to open the border to mass importation, cement prices will plummet and local businesses will suffer greatly.
The minister, who urged manufacturers to be more patriotic, stated that BUA Cement, for example, has been willing and is still willing, as of the last time he spoke with them, to reduce the price of their cement to less than N7000, N8000 agreed upon by the manufacturers, and he sees no reason why others should not do the same.
“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 per cent 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,” he said.
Earlier, Group Chief Commercial Officer of Dangote Cement, Rabiu Umar, blamed the high cost of gas and mining equipment for the hike in the cement price.
He said, “It is safe to say we are all Nigerians, and we are all facing the current head weight that is happening. I would like to challenge the popular belief that most of the raw materials needed to produce cement are available locally.
“While we have limestone and, in some cases, we have gypsum and, in some cases, coal, the reality is that it takes a lot of forex-related items to produce cement.”
