67% Increase In Cement Price Causes Scare For Builders

In the last few weeks, the price of the
product has increased from 1,500 Naira
to as high as 2,500 Naira.
The unexpected increase in price has
been generating reactions from citizens
of the nation that has huge housing
deficit.
In Ilorin, in the South-west Region,
people who need cement for different
purposes are asking the Nigerian
government to set up a cement factory
to check the incessant increase due to
monopoly.
An architect at the site of a shopping
complex construction, Christopher
Okebuko, lamented that the increase
from 1,500 Naira last two weeks to
2,500 Naira has affected the cost of the
project.
“I cannot go back for project variation
now,” he said.
Slid Into Recession
Other people also lamented how the new
price has affected them.
A civil servant, Olanrewaju Ahmed, said
he had borrowed money to buy the
building materials in order to complete
his personal house.
He asked the government to intervene in
the situation triggered by the nation’s
economy that has slid into recession.
Mr Ahmed believes such intervention
would reduce the sufferings of the
masses.
In another part of the nation, Asaba, the
capital of Delta State, sales persons at
Chinedu Oko Building Materials Plaza
along the Asaba-Onitsha expressway,
lamented drastic reduction in sales and
income.
Construction workers, however, believes
that industrialisation and patronage of
made in Nigeria goods would help
reduce the pressure on the Naira which
would in turn revamp the economy.
Figures released by the National Bureau
of Statistics on August 31 showed that
Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
contracted by 2.06% in the second
quarter of 2016
According to the report, the decline has
caused the Naira to get weaker while
lower oil prices dragged the oil sector
down.