Abdul Rabiu0:01
The price of cement in Nigeria is high, at almost 5,000 naira per ton. So I appreciate where the government is coming from. I can understand the frustration, you know, because of all the issues we're having in the country. Again, as I said during the meeting, the price of cement at 5,000 naira, or just under 5,000 naira per bag back in Nigeria, is not really very high if you look at the rate of the U.S. dollar today. To import cement into Nigeria… you know, today would be almost 5,000 naira per bag because the cost of cement CIF to any of the ports in Nigeria would be in the region of about 100 dollars a ton, and that is something that can be ascertained. So at 100 dollars per ton, if you take even 800 naira to one dollar, you will be looking at 4,000 naira per bag. And then, of course, you have the port costs, you have the transportation from the port to wherever you are taking the cement. So it's not that the government actually wants to import cement; it's just that they are frustrated that the price of cement is high, and I understand that. So what I am going to do, and what I told my shareholders, is that we will engage with the government to support the government. Because even though we know that the price of cement is high, it cannot be cheaper if we import cement today. But what we want to do, because we have two lines that are coming on stream by the end of the year—they open Line 3 and Sokoto Line 5—which will give us a combined capacity of 6 million tons, and by the time we have those two lines, we will be having about 7 million tons per annum. So what we want to do is to support the government, sit down with the minister to see how we can bring down the price of cement once we have these two lines up and running by the end of the year. I am happy to support the government. We are going to reduce the price adjustment once these two lines are up and running, and I can assure you that we will do everything to support the government and to support Nigerians. It is true that the price of cement is high enough, and that is simply maybe because of the devaluation and all the issues that we are having in the country now. Hence the reason why we decided that we are going to support and bring down the price of cement. And this is a promise from myself. The price of cement, I don't know what it is in the market, but I know our ex-factory price is about 4,000 or 4,300 naira per bag. So the target is to reduce that substantially by the time we start, regardless of what other input costs are. So we will do that. I will engage the minister, and we are not doing that because we are worried or concerned that the government will allow imports, because we know that imports will not be any cheaper. We are going to do that because we want to support the government and we want to support Nigeria and Nigerians.
The reason why we want to wait until we have the two lines that are going to come on stream by the end of the year is simply because we will have additional volumes. So that if we reduce the price, even if others have not agreed to reduce the price, the market will compel them to come down. Because if you do not have enough volumes and you reduce the price, the market may not take it. But if you have the volumes and you reduce the price with the huge volume that you have, price must come down. So even if others are not ready to support the government or to support the reduction of the price of cement, they will be compelled because if they don't reduce, they will not be able to sell. That is why we want to wait until end of the year, when these two new lines are on stream. And I will discuss with the minister and see how we can do that.
Yes.
Yeah, as I said, we are using more LNG now than coal, and we will continue to do that because it is important to go green. You know, because of course we have all the issues of climate change and what have you. It is not easy to go completely green, especially here in Africa, because we have energy deficit, we have all sorts of issues. So to go completely green is not going to be easy. It takes time, it is going to be a process. And we have started that, and we are using LNG in Sokoto, which means that we bring in the LNG from Port Harcourt and we use it in Sokoto. So it is less fossils, and we will continue to do that. But it will take a bit of time before we get there. Thank you.
