Cement Price Hits N15,000 as FG Probes Dangote, BUA and HBM

(Cement. Photo by X/Naija)

Cement prices have skyrocketed across Nigeria, hitting as much as N15,000 per 50kg bag in some places, up from around N9,300 to N9,700 at the start of the year.

The government's competition regulator is now investigating whether cement makers are unfairly hiking prices.

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission spent three months studying the industry before ordering major manufacturers to hand over data on how they set prices, how much they produce, and their business deals.

The main companies being investigated are Dangote Cement, BUA Cement and HBM Nigeria.

The puzzle at the centre of the investigation is puzzling.

Nigeria can make between 60 and 65 million tonnes of cement per year, but only uses about 25 to 30 million tonnes.

With so much extra capacity, prices should normally come down.

But they have not. In Tanzania, the same bag of cement costs around N6,528, far less than what Nigerians pay.

Cement makers say rising costs explain the price jumps.

The naira has weakened against foreign currencies, energy is expensive, shipping costs more, and imported machinery and spare parts cost more.

But the regulator is checking whether those reasons fully account for such large increases or whether something else is going on.

The commission wants to know if prices are genuinely driven by higher costs or if manufacturers are working together to keep prices high, abusing their market power, deliberately holding back supply, or blocking competition.

High cement costs ripple through Nigeria's entire construction industry, pushing up housing prices and making new homes less affordable.

Meanwhile, Dangote is looking into buying ships to carry cement to neighbouring West African countries because existing shipping options are not available or reliable enough.