Jonathan Gives Manufacturers 30
Days Marching Order on Cement
Price
Hope of eventual fall in the price
of cement which has been on the
rise for over three months rises
yesterday with directive by
President Goodluck Jonathan to
manufacturers of the product to
bring the cost down within 30
days.
The President on Monday held a
meeting with leading cement
manufacturers in the country,
notably the Dangote Group,
Lafarge/WAPCO and the BUA
Group with a view to addressing
the soaring price of the product.
Ima Niboro, spokesperson to the
President told journalists that
Jonathan directed the
manufacturers at the meeting to
bring down the
prices of the product within 30
days period or face the wrath of
the
government.

Niboro said the meeting was
summoned in response to
complaints from Nigerians about
the continuous rise in price of the
essential building commodity.
The price of a bag of cement has
in the past few months steadily
rise
from about N1, 200 to over
N2,500.00 in some parts of the
country.
Cement manufacturers have
before now blamed the soaring
cost of the
commodity on the increased cost
of transportation and production
cost
brought about by the rising price
of diesel.
Niboro however who announced
that the manufacturers had
agreed to do
all that was necessary to bring
down the price of cement in the
next
30 days in compliance with the
directive of the President.
At a post-meeting briefing the
President of the Cement
Manufacturers Association of
Nigeria, CMAN, Chief Joseph
Makoju; Chairman of Dangote
Group, Alhaji Dangote; Chairman
of BUA Group, Alhaji Abdulsamad
Rabiu and Country Manager of
Lafarge Cement, Jean-Christophe
Barbant also assured Nigerians
that the prices would come down
before the deadline.
Makoju told journalists that
government and the
manufacturers had agreed to
work together to address
problems which are at the root of
the high prices.
“In addressing the causes, some
of the issues are on our side as the
manufacturers, some of the issues
are on government side and I am
very confident that over the next
weeks, you will see the impact on
the issue of supply and prices of
cement,” Makoju said.
Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Chairman,
Dangote Group and biggest
investor in cement manufacturing
plant however told journalists
that the major problems the
industry was facing were in the
areas of supply of Low Pour Fuel
Oil (LPFO) consumed by the
industry and the loss of 6,000
trucks by his group recently,
adding that the recent post
election
crisis in the North which caused a
shut down of production for
weeks
was partly responsible for the hike
in price.
He added that marketers were
also capitalising on the increase in
the
pump price of diesel as they
transfer additional cost to the final
consumers.
“The other issue is that of
transportation. You know once
there is an increase of N1 in
diesels, transporters will take that
opportunity and increase their
charges. When you look at when
we started producing cement at
Obajana, cement for the first time
became cheaper, it is still cheaper
than the price of Lagos while this
was not the case before now.
He added that as part of efforts to
mitigate the increasing prices,
his companies will now sell
cement directly to retailers buying
as
little as one truck.
“So you can see that we are doing
quite a lot and I can assure you
that in the next few weeks these
prices will definitely come down,”
he said.
Dangote also disclosed that his
organisation has ordered for 5,
000
additional trucks to tackle the
problem of haulage of cement to
all
parts of the country.
“We are doing all that to try and
bring down the cost of
transportation but we will do it in
such a way that it will not affect
other transporters because we
also need them in the business to
survive.
“Cement will definitely be
exported, worst case scenario by
first
quota of next year, Nigeria should
be earning a lot of foreign
exchange and I can guarantee you
that cement would be one of the
major foreign exchange earners
in the next few months to come,”
he stated.
In his contribution, the chairman
of BUA Group noted that some of
the
challenges responsible for
increase in cement prices were
being
addressed. He listed the problems
to include the closure of Kaduna
Refinery and shut down of cement
companies based in the North as a
result of the post election crisis.
“There were challenges and some
of them have been taken care of,
namely the issue of LPFO. Kaduna
refinery was out of production for
some time but is now back on
stream, and most of the
companies located in the north
like Ashaka cement, Sokoto
cement, Benue cement rely
entirely on LPFO. So, when Kaduna
refinery had an issue a lot of
companies were not able to
produce and that have already
been taken care of,” he stressed.
The Country Manager of Lafarge
Group, added that it was also
resolved at the meeting that there
is need for more investment in
the cement sector to make the
product more available and
cheaper.