FOREIGN OR LOCAL: CEMENT HASN'T REALLY DROPPED.

The plan by the Federal Government to increase tariff on imported bulk cement invokes the intrigues that have continued to trail the pricing of cement in the country.

In what could be described as one of the economic wonders of Nigeria, when there is glut, the price of cement either remains as it is or it goes up. Besides, the politics of pricing of the essential commodity seems to be proving a peculiar economic point in Nigeria: that whether you manufacture locally or you import, the prices can still be uniformly high.

It also does not matter what kind of intervention the Federal Government makes – or claims to make, the prices out there remain the way they want to be. This is apart from the fact that high-level politicking between companies producing the commodity and those importing it has not translated into succour for buyers. Indeed, many also have cause to suspect the FG whenever it announces a major policy on the issue. You hardly know on whose side it stands.That is why the plan to increase the tariff on imported bulk cement, as announced on Monday by the Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, may only further bring to fore the intrigues associated with cement regime and pricing in the country.During a breakfast dialogue organised by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group,  Aganga had said the FG was considering the imposition of a new tariff on imported bulk cement, following the influx of the commodity “which is said to have caused a glut in the market and is threatening local cement manufacturing.”He said there was no basis for importing cement clinkers when Nigeria has a manufacturing capacity of about 28.6million metric tonnes of the product.

Despite the ‘glut’, Nigerians have continued to buy cement at prices which observers consider exorbitant. Currently, a bag of 50kg of cement costs between   N1,650 and N1,800. But in neighbouring Republic of Benin and Ghana, a bag of 50kg of cement sells for 4500CFA (N1,500) and  GH¢15.295 (N1,150) respectively.Sometime last year, the price shot through the roof when a bag was sold for N2,500 in Nigeria.

The big question is; What really is the solution to this problem?