We sold at 3500 per bag but traders were selling to Nigerians at 8000 – BUA Cement Chairman Rabiu on his efforts to bring down cement prices

AbdulSamad Rabiu, the multi-billionaire chairman of BUA Cement, said his company’s intention to sell cement at N3,500 in 2023 was frustrated by the actions of cement dealers. Rabiu said BUA sold over one million tonnes of cement to dealers at N3,500 a bag, with the intention that Nigerians would buy cement at an affordable price, but instead, traders and wholesalers would sell each bag of cement to consumers at prices ranging between N7,000 and N8,000. He said BUA Cement was unable to regulate dealers who he said were earning substantial profits from high margins, as the company had no influence on prices in the free market. He said: “So, many dealers took advantage of that policy. Instead of passing on the low prices to customers, they were even selling at double the price we sold to them.” Some were selling at N7,000 and 8,000 a bag. They made a lot of money at a very high margin. I think we had sold over a million tonnes at N3,500 before we realised what the dealers were doing. “And then because of the issues that Nigeria faced at the time with the devaluation of the Naira last year and the removal of the fuel subsidy, we couldn’t continue with that policy. “We wanted that price to stay at that level but the dealers refused. So, we couldn’t sustain it simply because we didn’t want to be in a situation where we were subsidising the dealers. “I mean the point where the exchange rate went from about N600 to maybe N1,800 to the US dollar. So, it became even more challenging and more difficult for us to actually sustain that pricing policy.”