Chairman of BUA Group, Alhaji Abdulsanad Rabiu, has said that his company leveraged on the waivers policy granted by President Bola Tinubu on certain food items to massively import commodities to crash the rising cost of food in the country.
The BUA boss made this revelation while fielding questions from State House Corespondents after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the State House on Thursday.
Rabiu equally disclosed that he had agreement with the Chairman of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote to freeze the price of cement for government contractors handling Renewed Hope projects across the country in support the President
The BUA boss added that himself and Dangote also agreed to set aside between N15-20 billion annually to fund the activities of the Cement Technology Institute of Nigeria (CTIN).
Speaking on how BUA was able to help crash the price of food, particularly rice and other grains, he said “you will recall that His Excellency granted duty or tariff waivers last year for certain food items to be imported into the country like brown rice, maize, wheat, sorghum. So, what we did was, we keyed into that policy and BUA was able to import quite a lot of wheat, maize and rice.
“And the moment the shipment started coming, we started processing, we crushed the prices of some of these commodities. And today I’m happy to inform that the price of rice is about N60,000 from what it was last year of N110,000. Flour is today N55,000 Naira per 50 kilo bag.
“Maize is about N30,000. And this happened because of Mr President’s foresight and vision by introducing that one-off duty waiver for a period of six months, and with that, we’ve been able to bring down the prices of these commodities.”
He blamed the middlemen who hoard paddy for the high cost of rice in the past.
Asked what specifically the Rice Millers’ Association was doing, he said “What we are doing as rice Millers is that we want to ensure that rice millers are not buying and hoarding Paddy. Although at the end of the day, it’s quite difficult to stop that.
“But what is happening is that once they know that there is rice availability imported that, because BUA has imported enough rice to last us until the end of the year, for example. So they know that if they try to hoard rice and try to take it up, BUA is there and will crash the price.
“So I am hopeful that at the end of the day, the price of rice going forward, is not going to go any higher than what it is today.”
Responding to question on the high cost of cement in the country, Rabiu said the prices were not higher than they should considering the nation’s economic reality.
He said with the devaluation of the naira, cement which sells at approximately $120 per ton is reasonable and competitive globally.
On the decision to freeze the price of cement for contractors, he said.
“Alhaji Aliko Dangote of Dangote Cement approached me, and I concurred with him that we should do everything to support Mr President Renewed Hope Agenda, and we have decided that we are going to freeze the price of cement for any contractor that is involved with the Renewed Hope project, or projects.
“So, what it means is that any company or anybody that is involved or that is doing a project that is under the renewed hope, the price of cement will be frozen. There will be no increase for the foreseeable future. We are doing that to support Mr president’s renewed hope initiative.”
He disclosed that they have resolved to reconstitute the board of the Cement Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (CENMAN) to ensure that the projects they engaged with the government were successful.
“We are also reorganising the Cement Technology Institute. And this is an institute that was established many years ago when Nigeria was importing cement and the companies that were importing were paying cement levy.”
