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Ashaka Cement faults plan to ban 32.5 cement grade

By BusinessNews Staff on March 29, 2014

Ashaka Cement Plc has faulted the federal government’s plan to ban the production of 32.5 cement grade in the country.

The Chairman of the Board, Ashaka Cement Plc, Alhaji Umaru Kwairanga said during a chat with journalists in Abuja that rather than ban the 32.5 cement grade, it should be produced alongside the 42.5 cement grade.

This, he argued, would not only provide consumers with the freedom of choice, but also assist in securing jobs that had already been created through the production of the 32.5 cement grade.

According to the News agency of Nigeria (NAN), there had been arguments that the use of the 32.5 per cent cement grade in the construction sector was a major reason for the increase in building collapse.

The development had made the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to set up a technical committee to review cement standardisation in the Nigeria.

However, commenting on the development, Kwairanga said, “I want to state that cement is not responsible for building collapse in Nigeria and I can say that, especially in the Northern Nigeria where Ashaka is located.

“I can tell you that so many researches around this have already been done and we have seen practically that the issue of building collapse is more related to the other issues than the cement itself.

“It’s either from the professionals or consultants that are handling the building jobs have not followed the specifications.

“Definitely the issue of banning 32.5 should not be the solution in Nigeria. Like I’ve said there is no way you can relate the issue of building collapse in Nigeria to 32.5 cement class. If there is no way you can relate that with the 32.5,then banning it will not solve the problem,” he said.

The chairman also said that the company has approved plans to expand its operation with the investment of fresh N100 billion in cement production in the North-east.

The amount, he said, would help to increase the plant production capacity of the company to 2.5 million metric tonnes, explaining that barring any last minute change, the ground breaking ceremony for the project would be made by President Goodluck Jonathan within the next two weeks.

He said the investment, which is the first of its kind in the troubled region would help to further boost economic activities as well as reduce the level of unemployment in the North-east.

Kwairanga said, “We are taking investment to North-east, Gombe that is worth over N100bn. The value of setting up that plant of 2.5 million metric tonnes of cement and a whole power plant is 513m Euros.

“We are ready for the ground breaking ceremony, all the issues of logistics have already been concluded, we have gotten the approvals from our board and we have already appointed and engaged the contractor.

“In the next two weeks, we will go and do this groundbreaking ceremony. And this is the first time that his type of investment is going to the North-east,” he stressed.
When asked why the price of cement was still high despite the promise by the federal government to reduce the price to N1,500 per bag, the Ashaka Cement chairman said it would be difficult to achieve that objective now owing to the high cost of production.

“When you look at our prices, whatever we are going to charge as cement price is based on cost of production and we may not be able to control the retailers’ prices because of several reasons such as logistics, transportation and the rest.

“But there are some other cost that you cannot control. I can tell you that when I look at the cost profile of producing one bag of cement in Ashaka, more than 50 per cent is related to power. So how can you bring down the price? The cost of energy is high.”
He, however, expressed optimism of a reduction in the price of cement when the challenges in the power sector are addressed.

[This Day]

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