The Chairman of BUA Group, Abdul Samad Rabiu, has disclosed that cement manufacturers in Nigeria have agreed to freeze the price of cement for Renewed Hope Projects.
He disclosed this after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu in the State House, Abuja on Thursday.
Rabiu added that the initiative, which is to support the President’s Renewed Hope Agenda, will apply to any contractor that is involved with renewed hope projects.
He said, “Alhaji Aliko Dangote of Dangote Cement approached me, and I concurred with him that we should do everything to support Mr President 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.
“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.”
‘We Will Keep Crashing Rice Prices’
The BUA Chairman also promised to keep the price of rice down, commending President Bola Tinubu for granting waiver on imported food items. He said that his “foresight” helped crash food prices in the country.
Rabiu said BUA Foods keyed into that policy and was able to import quite a lot of wheat, maize and rice.
“At the time food prices were really very high last year. For example, the price of rice was about N100,000 or thereabout per 50 kilo bag. The flour was about N80,000 per bag and maize was about N60,000 per 50 kilo bag, and pasta above N20,000 per Carton. So what we did was, 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. And today I’m happy to inform you that the price of rice is about N60,000 from what it was last year at N110,000. Flour is today N55,000 Naira per 50 kilo bag.
“Maize is about N30,000. And this happened because of Mr President’s foresight and vision by introducing that one-off duty waiver for a period of six months, and with that, we’ve been able to bring down the prices of these commodities,” Rabiu said.
