According to BUA Cement, market pressures have severely hampered their intention to offer a bag of cement for N3,500.
The company provided the justification in response to two civil society organizations' seven-day ultimatum, which demanded that the company sell their cement for N3,500 per bag or face picketing.
The company said it really fulfilled its promises to crash the price of cement to sell at N3,500, in reaction to the planned picketing of the BUA Cement office over the company's failure to deliver on that promise.
The head of BUA Group's Creatives & Visual Identity management, Mr. Timothy Sogbeinde, responded to the LEADERSHIP inquiry by stating that the company had been selling cement at N3, 500 ex-factory for months prior to Sogbeinde delivered a recorded message, produced by Mr. Kabir Rabiu, the executive director, in order to further elucidate his response.
Kabir restated, "We actually sold our cement for three to four months at N3,500," in that message. We believed that other cement industry participants would also work with us to lower the cost of cement.
In a similar vein, Kabir emphasized that although while 90% of the raw ingredients used to produce cement are produced locally, the manufacturing costs—which include growing currency rates in addition to the cost of producing electricity—did not inspire BUA to maintain the N3,500 for very long.
Recall that earlier this week, a Civil Society Group issued a seven-day ultimatum to BUA's administration, demanding that they comply with its demands or face the repercussions.
The group, which included representatives from Rumen Royal Foundation and Advocacy for Good Governance, gave the country the incorrect cement price list as justification for the order.
The executive director of the Rumen Royal Foundation, Patience Okhuahensuyi, and the leadership of Advocacy for Good Governance, Comrade Dr. Bartholomew Okoudo, also made a call to the BUA management has issued a public apology for allegedly "misleading Nigerians" when it stated that its cement would be sold at N3,500 per bag, but in reality, it is sold for N10,000.
The organization issued BUA a seven-day deadline to lower the price of its cement or face penalties.
"That the false declaration by the BUA Group led to very serious consequences for Nigerians, particularly operators within the building and construction industry, as most of them who went for loans in banks to build structures were disappointed when they realized that BUA cement is now N10,000 instead of N3,500," they said, reiterating their call on BUA management to keep its word.
The two expressed their curiosity as to why the BUA Group had broken their promises
notwithstanding the present difficulties facing the nation, a pledge to the incoming administration in less than six months.
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