The House of Representatives Joint Committee investigating the arbitrary increase of cement prices in the country has blamed the laxity and inefficiency of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) for the high cost of the commodity.
FCCPC has also requested documents on the cost of production from major manufacturers of cement to ascertain if the production cost justifies the high price of the commodity in the market.
The joint committee chaired by Hon. Jonathan Gaza said it was interested in the cost of production from 2020 to date that justified the current price of cement, which the committee said is over N10,000 in some areas in the country.
It added that the companies should provide details of all imported components for the production of cement and their prices from 2020 to date.
The committee further demanded that the companies should also provide details of local components for the production of cement and their prices in naira and dollars if any in the period under review.
Gaza stressed that the companies should give their average daily consumption of coal, gas, gypsum, limestone, clay, and laterite and the average daily production of cement from 2020 to date.
He said the companies should provide a summary of the monthly prices and quantity of cement produced from 2019 to date as well as their audited accounts of the company, bills of laden, and duties paid to customs within the period under review.
“We want to make sure they bring the total documents we requested to ascertain their day-to-day production to be able to have a good idea of how much it costs to produce a bag of cement,” Gaza said.
The committee chairman blamed the high price of the commodity on the inaction of the FCCPC.
He said as an agency responsible for the protection of consumers, FCCPC failed to protect Nigerians against middlemen who sold the commodity for as high as N14,000 after purchasing it for N6,000 at the factory.
“We are extremely hopeful that this engagement will lead to a reduction in the price of cement,” he said.
“FCCPC has slept on their functions so far, their inactivity and non-responsiveness to price is what has put Nigeria where we are today,” he added.
The Group Managing Director (GMD) of Dangote Cement Company, Mr. Arvind Pathack, and the Managing Director of Lafarge Cement, Ibrahim Aminu, were asked questions by the committee on Friday.
The committee also frowned at excuses that the high cost of foreign exchange is one of the reasons for the increasing price of cement.
The members of the committee said this was not tenable as most of the materials for the production of cement were sourced locally.
However, a member of the committee, Hon Dabo Ismail, said that Dangote Cement Company had continued to make increasing profits in the country despite being able to source most of its raw materials locally.
He said in 2022, the company declared a profit of N524 billion, N553 billion in 2023, and has so far made N166.4 billion in 2024.
The lawmaker said that there was no reason why the price of cement would keep rising in the market to the detriment of Nigerians while producers were smiling at the banks.
Earlier, the Group Managing Director (GMD) of Dangote Cement Company, Pathack said that 95 per cent of production costs were either imported or linked to foreign exchange.
He explained that there had been between a 100 to 333 per cent increase in the prices of major cement input materials like gas, AGO, gypsum, imported coal, spare parts, new trucks, tyres, and petrol, among others.
He lamented that between May 2023 and June 2024, there has been over 220 per cent devaluation of the Naira among many other challenges like insecurity and public power supply.
Pathack explained that the lack of sufficient forex to settle trade obligations had resulted in huge forex losses to the tune of N150 billion per annum while paying a 30 per cent interest rate on loans.
Pathack said that the company is made to pay for some of its contracts in dollars to access gas and explosives for production.
He said the provision made by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was not enough to meet demand.
Pathack said that the cost of building materials like reinforcement, granite, and aluminum windows had increased by 177 per cent to 283 per cent while cement had increased by 166 per cent between 2023 and 2024.
He said cement was being sold at an average cost of N7,200, saying that any price over N10,000 was the handwork of retailers, which the company had no control over.
Pathack added: “When converted to dollars a bag of cement is sold at $7.8 in Benin Republic, $6.6 in Togo, $7.8 in Ghana, $4.4 in India, while that of Nigeria is $4.43, making it one of the cheapest in Africa.”
Adedayo Akinwale
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