Abuja – February 21, 2024 – Viewpoint Housing News.
The Federal Government of Nigeria has made hints that if the country’s cement manufacturers continue to raise the price of their product, it might be forced to open the borders to cement imports.
Rejecting the idea of linking output to the dollar exchange rate, Minister of Housing and Urban Development Ahmed Dangiwa issued the warning on Tuesday in Abuja at an urgent meeting with producers of cement and building materials.
The primary raw materials used to make cement, such as gypsum, limestone, clay, and silica sand, are all readily available in the nation, thus they shouldn’t be valued in dollars, he maintained.
The minister accused cement manufacturers of hiding behind the unstable Foreign exchange to inflict untold hardship on Nigerians particularly those who are engaged in the construction and housing sector especially.
Only recently the prices of 50kg of cement had soared to N13,000 across the country.
Dangiwa identified the rising cost of cement as a problem for Nigeria’s building sector and housing delivery.
He said that the state of affairs was intolerable and that it was not conducive to the nation’s development.
According to him, since all of the resources used to make cement are supplied domestically, the federal government cannot tolerate such illegal price increases.
In his own words: “Nigeria produces a portion of the gas supply, which is necessary for cement makers to meet their production expenses, but it might not be sufficient. However, some manufacturers will just ignore that and profit from it.
“Key input materials such as limestone, clay, silica sand, and gypsum within our borders should not be dollar-rated. You cannot continue to give excuses and blame it on dollars all the time.
“The worst part is, other building materials’ manufacturers take a cue from cement manufacturers, and once they see that you increase your price, they do the same as well. Recently, this is happening almost every week, and it has to stop”, the Minister of Housing said.
He directed the Permanent Secretary, Dr Marcus Ogunbiyi, to get the committee working to quickly come up with recommendations based on the issues raised by manufacturers so that they can be taken to the Federal Executive Council for action.
Lending his voice to the conversation to salvage the situation, Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development, Abdullahi Tijjani Gwarzo, called on the manufacturers to make some sacrifices in their operations.
He said that while it would be understandable that there are some challenges in the production of cement, the manufacturers must also know that they have a corporate social responsibility to stand by Nigeria during difficult times and this is one such time.
Earlier, the Executive Secretary of the Cement Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (CMAN), James Salako, said the association does not have control over prices.
