The Group Executive Director of BUA Group, Kabir Rabiu, has reaffirmed that there was a price reduction for BUA cement from N5,500 to N3,500 per bag, with a take-off date for the new rate from October 2nd, 2023.

Kabir Rabiu, while reacting to the question on if ‘the BUA Cement price bonanza was delivered or not’ in ARISE News segment of the ‘MACROECONOMICS OF CEMENT PRICES’, within the wider state of the economy, said the price reduction was carried out from October 2nd, 2023 in line with the commitment of Alhaji Abdul-Samad Rabiu, Chairman of the BUA Group to ensure the accessibility and affordability of the product for Nigerians.

According to him, “Federal Government can only do so much, but without the support of the other producers and middlemen being called to order, average Nigeria will suffer”.

He said: “BUA cement price reduction did happen. Our chairman committed, and we fulfilled the commitment by running it for five months.

But, as you know industries such as cement in Nigeria, when we make this kind of commitment, we were expecting other players to come along because if you look at the industry where we are operating our market share of 30 -32% and for us to make this gestures, other players were not doing it, and turn out to be very difficult for it to be fully implemented.

“And so, we ran the program for almost five months, and because other players did not follow suit the distributors and the middleman began to take advantage of our gesture.

“So, what happened was that even though we were selling the cement at N3500 to support the economy and the users, there were no direct benefits at least to the end users because other players were selling at previous higher prices.

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“And with that, it turned out to be increasingly difficult for us to continue, and whilst we were doing that the cost began to go up, and we were forced to change our position a little bit.

“And while we were doing that we also discovered that some of our plants had some issues and that reduced production.

“We do not know whether it was by choice or it was a sort of maintenance, and so that put an enormous pressure on our cement supplies to meet the increasing demand and therefore, even widen the gap between what we were selling in the market factory and what the market was”.

It would be recalled that Rabiu, Chairman of BUA Group, in conversation with State House Correspondents following a visit to President Bola Tinubu in Lagos last year, stressed that despite various challenges, BUA is determined to ensure the accessibility and affordability of the product for customers.

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He said: “You know the price that we have set will be N3,500 per bag. You know x factory of course plus VAT and then delivered to customers depending on the region,”

“As you know, the factories that we have; are in Edo, and the other one is in Sokoto state. So for example, if you want us to deliver cement to you from Sokoto say to Lagos from Adamawa or to Maiduguri, the distance is quite far. So dependent on the distance and dependent on the location. You know the price changes but we intend to keep that promise”

According to him, the cement company site in Sokoto that would be inaugurated by January 2024 is expected to further expand the market across the country.

“We anticipate a combined annual production volume of about six million tonnes from these sites, which we expect to significantly impact the market. While facing some challenges, we are actively working to address and resolve them,” Rabiu stated.

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