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Nigeria erects idols of diverse forms in her struggle to make sense of her existence. Cement has become one of such. Yes, cement – the “powdery combination of alumina, silica, lime, iron oxide and magnesium burned together in a kiln and finely pulverized and used as an ingredient of mortar and concrete”. Cement has become a god of sorts in Nigeria.
Those who control the production of this idol of a building material, have evolved into chief priests in their own right. They have become very powerful persons. Without very strong political muscle or linkage, you dare not go near cement production in Nigeria. Some who dared to break into the exclusive fraternity, without strong backing from the very top, have tales of woe to tell. Some of such ambitious entrepreneurs ended up almost being wrecked financially, as the government and the corps of cement chief priests exert stern rebuke. It is a rather bizarre setting.
For all that crude oil means to Nigeria, attempt to gain entry into the crude oil business is not controlled as strictly as is the case in cement production. At least, various categories of risk takers and desperate natives in the oil belt, dare the devil of a state (apologies to Anthony Burgess) to scoop and refine some oil at their level. Or more. There is no such leeway on the cement front.
Over the years, control of cement production in Nigeria has squarely been placed in the grips of a brawny cartel. With cement production being an exclusive enterprise reserved for this few with the requisite political backing, the price of the commodity remains whatever the cartel says it should be. That is the way of monopolies. Expectedly, the price of cement has steadily headed only northward, even when virtually all the raw materials required to mix and produce the commodity are abundantly available in Nigeria. Trust governments in Nigeria to look away and shirk its responsibility of protecting her citizens at junctures of need. Such has been the lot of cement consumers, as they watch the price of the product continue to be raised beyond their reach. For many average citizens and entities who aspire to build and own their own homes, the price of cement, which is a basic material for building houses in this part, has become a major impediment to proceeding with such aspiration.
It is worth noting that affordability of cement became an issue almost immediately after production of the product was constricted and reserved for a tiny cabal of cement high priests, who had all other competitors shut out for them. The expectation that the enhancement of local capacity for cement production will drastically lower the price of the product, more so with the ample availability of relevant raw materials at home and with labour being relatively cheap, evaporated without wasting time. Except for the reality that economic rules that obtain every other place, never seem to hold in Nigeria, there was no convincing reason for the price of cement, locally produced, to continue to be on the increase in Nigeria, all year round.
Of course, such anomalous situation cannot bother the cement cartel. For them as it seems, if you cannot afford cement to build a house, you can go get yourself a gunyah. The government cares no less either. So, cement price climbed to N5,500 and remains on the rise. Consumers have been crying, but who cares?
Then last week or so, while Nigerians were grappling with sad issues of political scandal and crisis in political leadership, something remarkable happened on the seemingly impenetrable cement front. Bua Cement, one of the major chief priests in Nigeria’s cement industry, unilaterally reduced the cost of cement. The company drastically cut the price of the product from N5,500 to N3,500 per bag.
It bears acknowledging that BUA has always been relatively responsive to public yearnings and sentiment. Incorporated in 2008 as one of the key arms of the BUA group that came into existence in 1988, BUA cement prides itself as “one of the largest manufacturers of quality cement across sub-hara Africa”’. It has a total production capacity of 11 million metric tonnes per annum (MTPA). That capacity, definitely confirms it a giant in cement production in the African continent.
The decision by BUA Cement to reduce the price of cement in the Nigerian market is an uncommon manifestation of corporate social sensitivity to the difficult economic reality confronting an entity’s environment of operation. The decision was BUA’s, bereft of government prompting.
There was nothing anywhere stopping the cement producing company from continuing with the exploitative price regime that prevailed in the market place. For sure, the company stood to continue raking in money at the expense of builders and cement consumers in the Nigerian market. There is yet no analysis or indication that, by reducing the choking price of cement from N5,500 to N3,500, BUA will lose money. That is most unlikely. At worst, its profit margin will be reduced, but it will definitely, continue to post enormous profit at the new price it has elected to sell its product.
All that BUA has done is to moderate its greed and extend an uncommon gesture of goodwill and helping hand to the Nigerian economy and the consumers who need cement for sundry constructions.
What the BUA gesture shows is that the cement chief priests in Nigeria can indeed, operate profitably without the prevailing resort to strangle consumers, simply because there is a yawning absence of appropriate state mechanism to regulate and contain the greed of cartels.
BUA Cement has shown a spirit of social responsiveness and patriotism that is not common in business, especially in an environment as Nigeria, where the state is often in an unholy alliance with dead-spirited capitalists to squeeze life out of unprotected consumers. The BUA Cement example can easily be replicated by its competitors, to help reflate the Nigerian economy that is gasping for breath, but will greed allow the others to follow suit?
Chief Chris Ogunbanjo
A generation of men with good pedigree and inspiring personal profile are departing Nigeria at an unfortunate quick pace, almost as if in protest. The exit of Chief Chris Oladipo Ogunbanjo, lawyer and corporate giant, only last Saturday, at the ripe age of 99, is a huge loss, not only to his family, but to the larger community.
Chief Ogunbanjo’s decency and nobility of personage were apparent to anyone who encountered him. He was one of those giants whose presence said so much about them, without their saying much themselves. His death, coming so soon after that of Chief Akintola Williams, the icon of the accountancy profession, robs Nigeria of two men with good name and untainted profile, models of the type of men Nigeria can do with, at a time such as this. May his soul rest in peace.
