I never said I will reduce price of cement from N5500 to N2700–Dangote
Dangote Group, the parent company of Dangote Cement, has denied reports that it plans to reduce cement prices by 50.9 percent on October 1, 2023.
In various messages shared on multiple social media platforms, including WhatsApp groups, Dangote Cement was reported to have planned to reduce the price of cement.
The message reads: “Dangote crashes cement price from N5500 to N2700. Aliko Dangote has announced the new price of cement crashed by 50%, from October 1st, from N5500 to N2700.”
The Group Chief Branding and Communications Officer of Dangote Industries Limited, Anthony Chiejina, described the reports as fake news.
How Rabiu plans to reduce cement price
The rumoured planned reduction in price of Dangote cement comes on the heels of recent announcement by Abdul-Samad Rabiu, the Chairman of BUA Group.
Rabiu had revealed his company’s intention to lower cement prices in Nigeria from the current N5,500 to a range of N3,000 to N3,500.
He spoke after meeting with President Bola Tinubu on Friday, September 15, 2023. According to the billionaire, the price reduction will be implemented after two new cement plants are inaugurated by the end of the year or in early 2024. Speaking to journalists, he said:
“By the time these lines are commissioned, BUA Cement will produce about 17 million tonnes per annum. And with that, we intend to bring down the cement price from its current level of N5000 or N5500 per bag to maybe N3000 to N3500 per bag.”
He stated that with increased production, his company would flood the market with cement, thereby reducing the prices paid by Nigerians.
Dangote clarifies allegation of low price of cement in Benin Republic
Dangote Cement has clarified the allegation that it is selling a bag of 50kg cement to Nigerians at an exploitative rate of N5,200 while it sells the same quantity of cement at N1,500 in the Republic of Benin was not true.
Investigation in Cotonou at the weekend revealed that Dangote Cement was not on sale in Cotonou or anywhere in the Republic of Benin. While Dangote does not officially export cement to Benin Republic, it only uses the country as its transit route to export cement to Togo.
It was discovered that the average price of 50kg (32.5r) bag of cement in the Benin Republic was N6,216, which was about 4,200 Cefa).
The two strongest determinants of the price of cement in the Republic of Benin, according to THISDAY’s findings, were the fixing of cement’s price by the country’s government to ensure stability and the imposition of about 51 per cent duty and other taxes on imported cement to discourage importation of the commodity and encourage local production of cement.
An online publication had published a story on August 27, 2023, in which it had stated that, “Nigerians have taken to social media to call out billionaire Aliko Dangote for selling his bag of cement for N5,200 in his own country but selling at N1,500 in Benin Republic.”
