Nigeria acts to lower cement price

The Nigerian Federal Government gave approval to six additional firms to participate in the cement industry. It wants to see the price of the product fall to N1, 000 when the first leg of cement gets into the country. The current price is in excess of N2, 000 per bag,

The government has also promised to protect the downside by saying the landing cost of a bag of cement ought not to be above N700. The Minister gave licences to seven companies to import bagged cement into the country and they are Wapco/Lafarge {Ewekoro/Shagamu}, Ashaka Cement; Benue Cement Co. {Dangote}; Obajana Cement {Dangote}; Unicem, Calabar; Cement Company of Northern Nigeria {Sokoto} and Purechem, Ogun State. According to the Minister, the new plan will see the first leg of cement coming in within the next 40-days

Cement requires an investment in excess of $400 million to set up a plant. It may be a while before domestic supply equals demand.