BUA Chairman, Abdulsamad Rabiu, says cement will start selling N3,500

Cement, which currently sells at N5,500 will crash to N3,000 and N3,500 before the end of the year, says chief executive officer of BUA, Abdulsamad Rabiu.

Rabiu disclosed the news to journalists at the Villa after a meeting with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at State House, Abuja.

The Cement chief says the price crash is part of his company’s contribution towards assisting the Federal Government stabilise the prices of essential commodities.

He, however, said the new cement price regime would be hinged on the opening of two new plants of 3 million tons operating capacity each to be commissioned at the end of the year.

He 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 explained to him that 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 maybe N3,000 to N3,500 per bag.

“Eighty per cent of the raw materials that we are using to produce cement in Nigeria are 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.’’