*Abdul Samad Rabiu, Chairman and Chief Executive of BUA has disclosed how some middlemen and other competitors are not making cement available and affordable for Nigerian consumers

Isola Moses | 绿帽献妻

The BUA Group has alleged that middlemen and competitors have frustrated genuine efforts at making cement available and affordable to Nigerian consumers.

绿帽献妻 reports Abdul Samad Rabiu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of BUA Group disclosed this development to State House Correspondents during his visit to the President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, in Abuja, FCT.

Cement brands in Nigeria

Rabiu said that despite his company’s efforts at making cement affordable for Nigerians, these are being stifled by the middlemen and other competitors in the economy.

According to him, the BUA Group had increased cement production and slashed the price by 10 percent per bag.

Rabiu also declared that despite this, the impact has not been felt primarily due to the activities of middlemen and other manufacturers.

He purported other stakeholders had failed to make corresponding efforts at making the product available and affordable for consumers.

“I know everybody is talking about the high price of cement in Nigeria. “And that is, of course, because we do not have enough capacity,” said he.

The BUA Group CEO further stated: “When we started production, the fourth line in Sokoto a few weeks ago, when Mr. President was there to commission the plant.

“We decided to actually reduce the price of cement by N350 per bag. And that is about 10 per cent of the price.

鈥淪o today, our price is N3,000 or N3,050 ex-factory.

“Yet, that has actually not been reflected in the market, simply because the other two producers have actually not reduced the price of cement, so we鈥檙e having a challenge.”

He as well noted: “We are actually in a quagmire now.

“We are discussing this because what is happening is that we have reduced, but the dealers and the distributors are the ones that are actually making the money.

“So, it鈥檚 a bit of an issue for us.鈥�

The BUA Group, he stated, yet is holding talks with other cement producers in order to reduce cement prices in Nigeria.

BUA Cement explained that 鈥渋f you don鈥檛 have the support of all the players, it would not be possible.

“We actually thought that by reducing the price of N350 that the other companies would probably follow suit.

“That has not happened. And we have seen a situation where the price of cement is still high, you know.

“So, distributors and the dealers are making almost N800 to N1000 per bag.”

Rabiu explained “that is unacceptable because the idea initially when we did that was that we wanted the situation where the end-users would benefit from the price reduction.

“So, now we are contemplating whether probably we have to increase our price to the level of the other producers, which I think is N3,350 or N3,400.鈥�

According to him, cement prices will only stabilise when the company increases its production volume in 2023, when its Sokoto and Edo mines are 鈥渦p and running.鈥�

Impact of discontinuation Forex sales to banks

As regards the possible impact of the recent Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) policy to discontinue the sale of Forex to Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) by year end, especially on raw materials imports, Rabiu said, 鈥淚 think the CBN made it very clear that they will always be there to support.

“The CBN Governor was in Sokoto when we commissioned the Sokoto plant.

“And he promised that he stands ready to support the cement industry and any industry in Nigeria today that is ready to add value to produce what we have here (in Nigeria).鈥�

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