AbdulSamad Rabiu, the Multi-billionaire Chairman of BUA Cement, has revisited his unmaterialised promise to help Nigerians by selling a bag of his cement at N3,500 per bag.
He had about a year ago raised the people’s hope but it remains a dashed one as the product now sells for about N8,000.
According to him, he was frustrated by marketers whom he sold it to so cheaply but resold at high prices.
He said in an interview: “So, a lot of the dealers took advantage of that policy. Rather than pass the low prices to the customers, they were selling at even double the price we sold to them.“Some were selling at N7,000 and 8,000 per bag. They made a lot of money with a very high margin. I think we had sold more than a million tons at N3,500 before we realised what the dealers were doing.
“And then, because of the issues that Nigeria faced at the time about the devaluation of the Naira last year and the removal of fuel subsidy, we could not continue that policy.
“We wanted that price to stay at that level but dealers refused. So, we could not sustain that simply because we did not want to be in a situation where we are subsidizing dealers.“I’m referring to the point when the foreign exchange rate moved from about N600 to maybe N1,800 to the US Dollar. So, it became even more challenging and more difficult for us to actually sustain that price policy.”
