Dangote Cement Plc was hailed by the federal government, stake holders and the ordinary citizens of Nigerian for the slash in prize of cement with about 40% reduction, this new prize was announce not long ago bringing the prize of 32.5 cement grade to N1000 per 50 kg bag and 42.5 grade the higher quality to N1,150 per 50 kg.
It was a welcomed development,but a few industrial watchers are distressed over it ,that this could hand over monopolistic advantage to the company in the cement market
Reacting to these claim, the Group managing Director of the Dangote cement Plc,Mr Devakumar Edwin, say that the claim are baseless,that Dangote cement doesn't have any plan to chase away competitors or monopolize the market, that it was a patriotic duty to the citizens of the fatherland
In his words to channel TV business morning program, he said: “What we have done is a patriotic decision in the overall interest of Nigerians. We are in business to make money and we know that the price cut would not affect our profit margins. We are a Nigerian company; we have responsibility to make the product available to our people at the most reasonable price.
“As our production capacity increases, we found out that we could reduce the price to help low income earners find it easy to build their own houses and this is what we have done. Those castigating us and crying of monopoly are those who want house ownership to remain exclusive right of the rich.”
“We believe in competition and openness. We can defend our price anytime and it’s only an enemy of Nigerians that would speak against the price reduction,” he stated, declaring that Dangote would continue to protect the buyers from the hands of profiteers who might want to capitalize on the new price regime to create artificial scarcity, one of the reasons the company has been publicising the price cut in the media.
Good move..
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