FG threatens to open border for cement importation if …

The Nigerian government may be forced to open its borders to enable cement importation if cement manufacturers in the country refuse to reduce the price of the commodity.

Ahmed Dangiwa, the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, who issued the threat on Tuesday, said key input materials for cement production such as limestone, clay, silica sand, and gypsum, sourced within the nation’s borders, should not be dollar-rated.

Speaking at an emergency meeting held with cement and building materials manufacturers in Abuja, Dangiwa noted that the price of gas that manufacturers are using as an excuse was not tenable because gas is a raw material found within the country.

He added that the excuse of an increase in mining equipment should not come up because equipment bought by the manufacturers has been used for decades and is not purchased every day.

The minister said the border was closed to the importation of cement to help local manufacturers.

However, he noted that if the government decides to open the border for mass importation, the prices of cement will crash and local manufacturers will be gravely affected.

The minister, who called on the manufacturers to be more patriotic, said BUA Cement, for instance, has been willing and is still willing, as at the last time he spoke with them, to crash the price of their cement, which is lower than the N7000, N8000 agreed by the manufacturers, and he sees no reason why the 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 percent 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, the 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 speak on 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.”