Chairman of BUA Group, Abdul Samad Rabiu, has announced that cement manufacturers in Nigeria have agreed to freeze the price of cement for Renewed Hope Projects.
Gatekeepers News reports that the decision was made in support of President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, according to Rabiu.
He said the initiative was proposed by Aliko Dangote of Dangote Cement, and he concurred with the idea.
“Alhaji Aliko Dangote of Dangote Cement approached me, and I concurred with him that we should do everything to support Mr. President’s Renewed Hope Agenda, and we have decided that we are going to freeze the price of cement for any contractor that is involved with the renewed hope project, or projects,” Rabiu said.
“So, what it means is that any company or anybody that is involved or that is doing a project that is under renewed hope, the price of cement will be frozen. There will be no increase for the foreseeable future. We are doing that to support Mister President’s renewed hope initiative. And that is something that Alhaji Aliko Dangote actually proposed.
“I must say, I must give him credit, and I concur with him. So we’ve agreed. We are going to do that. We are going to send out the letter sometime next week to the ministry. And I also want to commend the Honorable Minister of Works, Engineer Umahi, for the initiative he took to ensure that all the roads are concrete roads.
“Because concrete roads are more durable, they take much longer, you know, in terms of durability and the price is going to be, the cost is going to be cheaper than even bitumen.”
In addition to the cement price freeze, Rabiu also promised to keep the price of rice down. He commended President Tinubu for granting a waiver on imported food items, which he said helped crash food prices in the country.
“We keyed into that policy and BUA was able to import quite a lot of wheat, maize, and rice. And the moment the shipment started coming, we started processing, we crushed the prices of some of these commodities,” Rabiu said.
As a result, the price of rice has dropped from N100,000 to N60,000 per 50kg bag, while flour now costs N55,000 per 50kg bag, down from N80,000. Maize prices have also decreased from N60,000 to N30,000 per 50kg bag.
Rabiu attributed the price drops to President Tinubu’s “foresight” and vision in introducing a one-off duty waiver for six months. “We’ve been able to bring down the prices of these commodities,” he said.
