By Segun Oshundairo
Current reports have it that a bag of cement sells for between N10,000 and N15,000 in different parts of the country. A year ago, a bag of cement sold for less than N4,000. The prices of other building materials have also gone astronomically high. Prices of sand, nails, granite, roofing sheets, window and door frames, wood, iron rods, and other building materials have also hit the rooftop with suppliers blaming foreign exchange, transport, and logistics costs.
Real estate developers have started to abandon projects. Individuals who are building personal houses are gasping for financial breadth. We are in the most uncertain and troubling times. The instability of the foreign exchange market has negatively altered the business of real estate purchase and delivery in Nigeria. The government has to do something urgently to stem the tide. Housing is one of the basic necessities of life. As the government works assiduously to tackle the prevalent food crisis, the housing deficit must not be allowed to spiral out of control.
The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Dangiwa, recently called for a meeting with manufacturers of cement and other building materials in the country. The move was aimed at better understanding the challenges in the sector, sharpening measures to mitigate the rising costs of building materials in the country, and finding sustainable ways to address them. The minister lamented the high costs of building materials despite the abundance of raw materials in the country. He also queried the recurring disproportionate increase in the price of cement in particular, especially considering that cement producers in the country source virtually all their raw materials locally.
The minister stated, “It is disheartening to see how much Nigerians have to pay for essential building commodities like cement, with the prices rising almost daily. I don’t understand the reason for this increase, and it is not acceptable.
“The manufacturers should explain to Nigerians their reasons for such incessant hikes. I know that the cement producers source their raw materials in Nigeria – limestone, clay, silica sand, gypsum, iron ore, and the rest. These minerals abound in Nigeria and these manufacturers get them here, so there is no justification to try and blame it all on the rise of the dollar.”
The minister gave an assurance of the commitment of the administration to providing decent and affordable shelter and liveable communities to low- and medium-income earners, as well as the vulnerable in society. He said the government would create a conducive environment for the private sector to thrive, including through ensuring that building materials are affordable and accessible. The Ministry of Housing in January inaugurated the Building Materials Reform Task Team as part of efforts to develop the building materials industry through the creation of building materials manufacturing hubs in each of the six geopolitical zones of the country. The minister said while the hubs are yet to come on stream, there is a need to continue to interface with players in the industry such as building materials manufacturers in a bid to promote affordability.
While the Federal Government is making efforts to unravel the gloom behind the galloping prices of building materials through mediation and other fact-finding interventions, it is important that sustainable and enduring measures should be undertaken to stem the tide.
Encourage local alternatives
For almost every building material that is sourced in Nigeria or abroad, there is a more affordable alternative locally. At the global level, different solid wastes generated in large quantities are used as full or partial replacements for conventional materials in many developed countries. For instance, ashes from industrial and agricultural wastes such as fly ash and rice husk ash are used as ‘pozzolan’ to partially replace cement in concrete production. Most of the alternative materials are cheap and are abundantly available in Nigeria. They also do not compromise the strength and durability properties of the concrete.
Research has also shown that the structural behaviour of reinforced palm kernel shell concrete, has lower density (24 per cent of normal concrete), increased compressive strength (14 per cent higher), with lower modulus of elasticity and flexural strength, which were 33 per cent and 15 per cent of normal weight concrete, respectively. In addition, bamboo is said to be a very strong fibre that is used as a reinforcing material. The compressive strength of bamboo is two times higher than that of concrete, while the tensile strength is close to that of steel.
Listing interventions at making use of local materials to reduce the cost of building materials in Nigeria, the Director-General, Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute, Prof Samson Duna, recently said the council has launched cement-stabilised bricks technology. According to him, the use of the material reduced the cost of construction drastically.
“The NBRRI has also developed building materials like pozzolana, mardotile roofing, and varieties of machines for their production. The products reduce the cost of production of mortar and concrete, reduce the heat of hydration, and reduce the effects of alkali aggregate reactivity,” he added.
Similarly, the Director-General, Raw Materials Research and Development Council, Prof Hussaini Ibrahim, recently said the council is presently collaborating with the New Material Nigeria Company Limited, a member of the China National Building Materials Group wholly owned by the government of China, which has introduced a new innovative construction material known as ‘fibre cement board’ into the Nigerian market. According to him, this makes Nigeria the first country outside China where an alternative to gypsum board is being manufactured.
“The fibre cement board is resistant to weather, water and fire. It is soundproof, shatter-resistant, flexible, and termite-resistant, and costs lower than normal bricks. The fibre cement board is made out of composites of cement, and cellulose fibres like paper pulp, quartz, and sand. They are used in the construction of walls, partitioning, roofing, and flooring. It can be used for internal wall partitioning as well as exterior wall cladding.
I strongly believe these initiatives among others will substantially reduce the prices of building materials in Nigeria. Also, they will save the nation more than N2tn on an annual basis in foreign exchange equivalent if the projects are commercialised and well-funded by the government. They will generate more than 50,000 jobs in the country and make building of houses easier for the local populace. These will facilitate an increase in the contribution of the sector to the GDP. For these initiatives to be maintained and sustained, the government as a matter of urgency must create appropriate means for the delineation and implementation of research results. In addition, there is a need for a policy that will enhance private-sector participation in the commercialisation of these research efforts.
Address cement manufacturers’ concerns
A few days ago, the Minister of Works, David Umahi, met with cement manufacturers and they agreed to reduce the price of a bag of cement to N7000. The cement manufacturers had said the high cost of gas, high import duty on spare parts, poor road networks, high foreign exchange rates,