The general increase in the prices of goods and services in the country may soon push the unit price of sachet water to N20. Barely two months ago, the unit price of sachet water jumped by 100 per cent from its former price of N5.
Sellers then attributed the rise to “high cost of living”, with some citing the astronomical exchange rate. Investigations by The Point revealed that the prices of almost all the materials used in processing sachet and table water, respectively, had gone up.
It was also discovered that the materials were not sourced locally and manufacturers depended wholly on imported materials. In-depth checks indicated that manufacturers of pure water throughout the country rely solely on the petrochemical company based in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, which produces one of the chemicals needed for its production.
Sources, however, informed The Point that the company had been under-producing as a result of incessant attacks on its facilities by Niger-Delta militants. An Akure-based entrepreneur, Mr. Festus Gbemisola, whose company produces both table and sachet water, told The Point that for his company to remain in business, he needed to import High and Low Density Polyethylene.
He said, “We use Methacholine Polyethylene that strengthens and brightens the sachet. All these we import and the irony of it all is that their prices have gone astronomical. “For us to come out of the malaise, government must establish more petrochemical industries.
They must recognize that there is a strong need for it to encourage the cottage industries.” Gbemisola disclosed that manufacturers of pure water must be spending over N10 billion annually to import what he called“those essential materials to keep business rolling.”
According to him, “manufacturers enjoyed relatively when it was about N150 to a dollar. But now, that naira is a little over N500 to a dollar, it is commonsense to then predict that the price of pure water would go up soon.”
Gbemisola said Nigeria was an import-dependent economy and that the need to encourage local manufacturers had become imperative if the prices of essential goods and services must come down. “We run on generators most of the time. We have to pay our workers. By the time you add all these together, you would understand better what we have been under-going,” he said.
Also speaking with The Point, a retired chartered accountant, Mr. Ojo Agbi, who is now a private businessman, said, “We export crude oil and buy back its by-products at sky-rocketing prices.
This is very unfortunate.” Agbi canvassed for the establishment of more petrochemical companies as a way of reducing the high cost of producing pure water, adding, “The government can also review some of its policies by selling dollars to the manufacturers at reduced rates as a way of encouraging local producers of pure water.”
