"Ideally, cement retail prices should not cost more than ?7,000.00 to ?8,000.00/ 50kg bag of cement. Therefore, the three cement manufacturers:
The Federal Government says it will give more attention to fixing roads and seek some remedies on the cost of gas and import duties to bring down the astronomical price of cement nationwide.
This is part of the communiqué that was reached during a meeting between the government and the major cement manufacturers on Monday in
According to the document, the government has taken note of the challenges enumerated by the manufacturers which include, the cost of gas, high import duty on spare parts, bad road network, high foreign exchange and smuggling of cement to neighbouring nations.
The meeting concluded that the
On cement smuggling, the
The meeting also agreed that the current high price of cement was abnormal in some locations nationwide.
"Ideally, cement retail prices should not cost more than ?7,000.00 to ?8,000.00/ 50kg bag of cement.
Therefore, the three cement manufacturers:
In addition, the government advised cement manufacturers to set up a price monitoring mechanism to ensure compliance, and manufacturers have willingly accepted to do so and sanction any distributor or retailer found wanting.
The government expects the agreed price to drop after securing its interventions on the challenges of the manufacturers on gas, import duty, smuggling and better road network.
Furthermore, they agreed that at least six more players had to be introduced into the cement manufacturing sector to make the market more competitive and products more available.
The BUA representative,
The stakeholders agreed to reconvene in 30 days to review the progress made.
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