Developers in the built industry have turn down the agreement between the Federal Government and the Cement Manufacturers.
It was fix at the meeting that price of cement will be reduced to N7,000 and N8,000.
Wakadaily gathered that, the President of the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria, Dr.Aliyu wamakko, noted the decrease was not good for the economy.
He said “I do not think that is good for the economy of this country because cement constitutes the primary product for any building construction to be done.
“The Chief Executive Officer of BUA Cement, Abdul Samad Rabiu, promised Nigerians that by January 1, 2024, the cement price would be slashed to N3,500, so what is the problem.”
According to him, most of the components of the cement are sourced locally.
Why should the price be reduced to N8,000? Anything above N5,000 is not beneficial for the economy and it would not bring any positive impact towards the reduction in the 28 million housing deficit,” he added.
Wamakko stated that the price should be brought down to N5,000 for any relevant thing to be done.
He said, “At N8,000, most of the building projects in the country would be uncompleted. There must be a review of abandoned buildings all over the country, most especially the ones in 2023.
“90 per cent of cement is sourced locally, so I do not understand why the cement should go up to that price.”
Also, Me Toye Eniola, the Executive Secretary, Association of Housing Corporation in Nigeria, condemned the negotiation.
He said, “What is fair in N7,000 to N8,000, when BUA promised us decrease from over N5,500 to N3,500 and now they are discussing N8,000? Where are we heading to?
“That negotiation is for the rich. What they are saying is with that price, housing is going not to be for the poor. With that price, there is no poor man that would be able to afford it and it would keep widening the deficit gap.
The way forward is to go back to the basics, this is the time to embrace local building materials, for instance, we have interlocking blocks and we require about 5 per cent of cement for this which would save us a lot of money.
Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute has done a lot of research on alternative building materials that can be used in Nigeria, for instance, they have done research on the use of bamboo as an alternative to the iron rod.”
Eniola emphasis the need for the country to embrace local building materials as opposed to imported ones dictated by forex.
