BY FESTUS OKOROMADU
BUA Cement Plc has announced plans to reduce the price of cement in Nigeria from the present N5, 500 to between N3, 000 and N3, 500.
This was made known by the Chairman of the company, Abdul Samad Rabiu, after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the State House, Abuja on Thursday.
Rabiu revealed that the cement company is adding two new plants at the end of the year to be commissioned by President Bola Tinubu, bringing BUA Cement’s total capacity to 17 million metric tons.
Speaking on the visit, he said this is part of its own contribution to support the efforts of the Federal Government to bring down the prices of key commodities in the country, adding that this will enable the company to bring down the price of cement to about N3, 500 per bag.
“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.
“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 prices of these commodities are brought down incidentally.’’
