BUA Cement Plc on Friday announced plans to commission two new plants to reduce the prices of cement in the country.
Abdul Samad Rabiu, chairman of BUA Group, disclosed this while addressing State House correspondents on Friday after meeting with President Bola Tinubu.
Mr Rabiu in a video posted on the company’s X handle on Friday said the company is adding two new plants to be commissioned at the end of the year to support the government efforts to bring down the price of cement.
He explained that the new plants will increase the company’s production capacity to 17 million metric tons annually, adding that the company could only do this because it develops locally.
“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 three million tonnes each that we will be commissioned by the end of the year.
“So I came to intimate his Excellency and also to explain to him the efforts we are making in trying to support again the efforts of the government in bringing down the price of cement with these six million tonnes that we are commissioning by the end of the year,” he said.
“And by the way, his Excellency has agreed to come and commission the plants, sometime in December or early January next year.
“So I explained to him that we want to support the efforts of the government in bringing down the price of cement,” he added.
By the time these lines are commissioned, he said BUA Cement will be producing about 17 million tonnes per annum.
“And with that, we intend to bring down the price of cement from its current level of N5,000 or N5,500 per bag to maybe N3,000 to N3,500 per bag,” he said.
“And we can only do that because we’re producing cement locally, 80 per cent of the raw materials that we are using to produce cement are in Nigeria.
“It is mainly limestone and Gypsum and of course, energy is part of it and will have gas in Nigeria. We want to support the government efforts in ensuring that the price of these commodities is brought down,” he added.
Mr Rabiu said: “What we are going to do by the time we commission these two lines is to announce to Nigerians that the price of cement is going to come down.
“Mr president was very happy and he assured me that we will get all the support that is required from him and his government to see that prices of commodities, not only cement but other commodities as well are brought down so that Nigerians will get the benefits of what Mr president is doing,” he said.
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