There was a “price reduction in cement price from N5,500 to N3,500 per bag x-factory price with take-off date for the new rate from October 2nd, 2023” but Group Executive Director of BUA Group, Kabir Rabiu said this gesture was sabotaged.
He said the price reduction was carried out 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, the average Nigeria will suffer”.
He said: “BUA cement price reduction actually did happened. Our chairman made the commitment, and we actually fulfilled the commitment by running it for five months.
“But, as you know industries such as cement in Nigeria, when we do 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 programme 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 in order to support the economy and the users, there was no direct benefits at least to the end users because other players were selling at previous higher prices.
It would be recall 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.