BUA Cement Plc Chairman, Abdulsamad Rabiu, has revealed how cement dealers sabotaged his company’s efforts to reduce cement prices to ₦3,500 per bag last year.
Speaking at the company’s 8th Annual General Meeting on Thursday, Rabiu explained that the plan was derailed by profiteering dealers who exploited the lower prices for their gain.
He said, “So, a lot of the dealers took advantage of that policy. Rather than pass the low prices to the customers, they were selling at even double the price we sold to them. Some were selling at ₦7,000 and ₦8,000 per bag. They made a lot of money with a very high margin. I think we had sold more than a million tons at ₦3,500 before we realised what the dealers were doing.”
He further noted that external factors like the 2023 naira devaluation and the removal of fuel subsidies also made it difficult to sustain the price reduction policy.
“We wanted that price to stay at that level but dealers refused. So, we could not sustain that simply because we did not want to be in a situation where we are subsidising dealers,” Rabiu added.
