Business
Reasons we cannot sell cement below N7,000, by Dangote, Bua, Lafarge

Published
1 year agoon
By
Ekwutos BlogNigerian Cement manufacturers have said a surge in their operating costs was responsible for the sudden increase in the prices of the commodity around the country.
This development emerged after a meeting by the Minister of Works, David Umahiattended by his Industry, Trade and Investment counterpart, Doris Uzoka-Anite on Monday in Abuja with representatives of Dangote Cement Plc, BUA Cement Plc and Lafarge Africa Plc.
After almost three hours of discussion, the Works Minister read the communique of the meeting where the cement manufacturers explained the reasons why the price could not be lower than N7,000 for the time being and why it went up astronomically in the first place.
The manufacturers noted that the challenges of the high cost of gas, import duties, bad road network and the prevailing high rate of foreign exchange against the naira are militating against an instant drop in the price of the commodity.
Kabir Rabiu, the Executive Director of BUA said the meeting was extensive but the manufacturers would abide by the agreement.
According to him, the manufacturers were helpless over the issue of the surging prices.
He said: “First our cost component of energy went from 39 percent to 60 percent because of gas
“The price of gas last year was 415, then to N715, today we are paying more than N1,500. All these issues were discussed and we gave our commitment.
“When our 6 million tonnes of cement is supplied to the market in the few weeks, definitely we will see a sharp drop in prices when that volume hits the market”.
He said the big disparity between demand and supply also played a major role in the price surge considering the season too.
According to him, some manufacturing plants have issues and cannot produce probably by choice or accident, which leads to a reduction in production.
“And being the highest period of cement demand in the country, the tendency that demand will outstrip supply will push the price up,” he added.
He also noted that smuggling across the border contributes to the scarcity of the commodity which added to the surge in price.
He said the commodity is much costlier in Cameroon, for instance, which makes Nigerian cement a target for cross-border smuggling to Cameroon and other neighbouring countries.
The representative of Dangote Cement Plc, the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Arvind Pathak, said notwithstanding that the core materials of the commodity are locally sourced, he said spare parts, among several other variables are subject to the mechanism of Import Duties and foreign exchange which makes it difficult for the manufacturers to disregard the prevailing economic indices.
Parts of the communique read by Umahi read: “The government and the manufacturers noted that depending on the location, ideally, the price should not be more than N7,000 and N8,000 to get to the consumer per 50 kg bag of cement.
“The manufacturers, BUA Cement Plc, Dangote Cement Plc and Lafarge Africa Plc have agreed to have their cement price nationwide to between N7,000 and N8,000 per 50kg depending on the location.
“Between the Federal government and cement manufacturers to set up a price monitoring mechanism to ensure compliance for the price we have set today and manufacturers have accepted to sanction, on their own, any of their distributors or retailers found wanting.
“Government expects the agreed price to drop after securing government’s interventions on the challenges of the manufacturers on gas, import duty, smuggling, and better road network.
“It was also agreed that the government will encourage the emergence of at least six cement manufacturers to augment the three existing companies.
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Business
Air Peace set to resume flight operations

Published
20 hours agoon
April 25, 2025By
Ekwutos Blog
Air Peace says it will resume flight operations on Friday following the suspension of strike by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, NiMeT, workers.
This was contained in a statement by the airline’s Head of Corporate Communications, Ejike Ndiulo, on Thursday night in Lagos.
Ndiulo expressed Air Peace’s gratitude to its customers and the general public for patience, understanding and support throughout the period of the strike.
”Your resilience and trust in our brand mean the world to us.
“We commend the active and decisive intervention of the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr Festus Keyamo (SAN), whose leadership and commitment were pivotal in resolving the impasse and restoring normalcy within the aviation industry,” Ndiulo said.
He noted the minister’s swift engagement with aviation stakeholders, his transparent approach and his dedication to the stability and progress of the aviation sector.
Head of Corporate Communications further stated that Keyamo’s efforts not only facilitated timely resolution of the industrial dispute but also underscored his broader vision for a safer, more efficient and investor-friendly Nigerian aviation industry.
Ndiulo said Air Peace was committed to providing safe, reliable and world-class services.
Ekwutosblog reports that NiMeT workers on Thursday suspended the strike which began on April 22 after the minister’s intervention.
The workers downed tools in protest of alleged poor working conditions, including non-implementation of the 2019 Consequential Adjustment to the National Minimum Wage (affecting at least 30 staff).
They are also demanding a 25/35 per cent salary increase, 40 per cent hardship/peculiar allowance, and annual staff trainings.
The minister had promised to find lasting solutions to the problems.
Business
Aussie boss’s $2,000 mistake after using AI to write a work email

Published
21 hours agoon
April 25, 2025By
Ekwutos Blog
- A cleaning company director introduced an AI tool to help write work emails
- Employees used the tool to try and shorten customer response time
A Melbourne cleaning company director has lost out on thousands of dollars after using artificial intelligence to help write a series of emails.
The business boss had hoped to improve his firm’s productivity, but one mistake alone cost it more than $2000 when he failed to pick up on the blunder.
End of Lease Cleaning Melbourne director Michael had introduced a generative AI tool to speed up the time it would take for his team to respond to customer emails.
Rather than have employees type out individual lists of cleaning services, they would input information such as the type of service required and let the tool do the rest.
The AI-powered tool would then generate an email that included the services, their costs and a job quote for each customer.
But the tool produced several emails with mistakes which were not picked up by the cleaning company’s employees.
‘We lost quite a lot of money,’ Michael told 9news.au.
The AI tool mistakenly listed different services to the ones required without changing the quotes to reflect the higher prices.

A cleaning company director lost out on over $2,000 after an AI tool to write emails (stock)
Michael and his team were forced to provide full wall cleans, priced between $500 to $700 for the price of a spot wall clean which is significantly lower.
The company’s most-costly mistake involved the director using the AI tool to generate a quote for property that required a deep clean worth around $2,000.
Michael read over the generated email but failed to spot several mistakes within the correspondence.
He didn’t spot the errors until a week later, by which time it was too late to correct them as the customer had signed up to a different company.
After the $2,000 mistake, End of Lease Cleaning Melbourne’s employees no longer use AI for business correspondence.
The response time for returning customers’ emails has now returned to five hours, the time it had previously taken prior to introducing the AI tool.
‘If you are using AI, you definitely need to read everything two to three times before you send that email,’ he added.
Almost half of all Australians use generative AI, according to a survey Google conducted with IPSOS in January.

According to a survey, around 65 percent of Australian workers said their employer had introduced AI in the workplace (stock)
Out of that 50 percent, almost 75 percent of those report using it for work.
In a separate survey carried out by HR platform Workday, around 65 percent of Australian workers stated their employer had introduced AI in the workplace.
Business
Resolve trade tensions inimical to global economic growth – IMF tells countries

Published
1 day agoon
April 25, 2025By
Ekwutos Blog
The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, on Thursday urged countries to swiftly resolve trade disputes that threaten global economic growth.
Georgieva said the unpredictability arising from President Donald Trump’s aggressive campaign of taxes on foreign imports was causing companies to delay investments and consumers to hold off on spending.
She made the call while addressing reporters in a briefing during the spring meetings of the IMF and its sister agency, the World Bank.
“Uncertainty is bad for business,’’ she said.
Georgieva’s comments came two days after the IMF downgraded the outlook for world economic growth this year.
The 191-country lending organisations which seek to promote global growth, financial stability and to reduce poverty, also sharply lowered its forecast for the United States.
It said the chances that the world’s biggest economy would fall into recession have risen from 25 per cent, to about 40 per cent.
Georgieva warned that the economic fallout from the trade conflict would fall most heavily on poor countries, which do not have the money to offset the damage.
Trump, since his second return to the White House on January 20, has aggressively imposed tariffs on American trading partners.
Among other things, he slapped 145 per cent import taxes on China and 10 per cent on almost every country in the world, raising U.S. tariffs to levels not seen in more than a century.
He has, however, repeatedly changed US policy, suddenly suspending or altering the tariffs.
This has reportedly left companies bewildered about what he is trying to accomplish and what his endgame might be.
Trump’s tariffs culminated in a sharp reversal of decades of U.S. policy in favour of free trade and the resulting uncertainty around them have caused a week-long rout in financial markets.
But stocks rallied Wednesday, after the Trump administration signaled that it was open to reducing the massive tariffs on China.
“There is an opportunity for a big deal here,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday.

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