A respite of sorts spread across Nigeria on Friday as news filtered that the price of cement, currently N5,500 per bag, would crash to about N3,500, following the intervention of BUA Cement Plc, the country’s second largest cement producer.
Chairman of BUA Cement Plc, Abdul Samad Rabiu, broke the news in Abuja shortly after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the State House.
According to Rabiu, the company would be commissioning two new plants at the end of the year, which would increase BUA Cement’s total capacity to 17 million metric tons.
He said the visit to the president demonstrates the Group’s support towards the Federal Government’s efforts to bring down the prices of key commodities in the country.
Rabiu said, “Let me thank His Excellency Mr. President for graciously receiving me today, I came to intimate his Excellency on the affairs of our cement business. We have two new lines of 3 million tons each that we will be commissioning by the end of the year.
“So, I came to intimate his Excellency and also to explain to him the efforts we are making in trying to support again the efforts of the government in bringing down the price of cement. With these 6 million tons that we are commissioning by the end of the year, and by the way his Excellency has agreed to come and commission the plants sometime either in December or January next year.
“So I explained to him and we want to support the efforts of the government in bringing down the cost of cement, by the time these lines are commissioned BUA Cement will be producing about 17 million tons per annum and with that we intend to bring down the cost of cement from its current level of N5,000 or N5,500 per bag to may be N3,000 to N3,500 per bag.
We want to support their efforts in ensuring that the price of these commodities are brought down eventually
“And we can only do this because we are producing this cement locally, 80% of the raw materials that we are using to produce cement in Nigeria is mainly limestone and gypsum and of course energy is part of it of course we have gas in Nigeria. So we want to support the government, we want to support their efforts in ensuring that the price of these commodities are brought down eventually.’’
BUA Cement Plc is Nigeria’s second largest cement producer with a total combined installed capacity of 11million mtpa.
