The over 60 per cent hike in the price of cement is causing huge scare for builders in Nigeria, as recession bites hard.
In the last few weeks, the price of the product has increased from 1,500 Naira to as high as 2,500 Naira.
The unexpected increase in price has been generating reactions from citizens of the nation that has huge housing deficit.
In Ilorin, in the South-west Region, people who need cement for different purposes are asking the Nigerian government to set up a cement factory to check the incessant increase due to monopoly.
An architect at the site of a shopping complex construction, Christopher Okebuko, lamented that the increase from 1,500 Naira last two weeks to 2,500 Naira has affected the cost of the project.
“I cannot go back for project variation now,” he said.
Slid Into Recession
Other people also lamented how the new price has affected them.
A civil servant, Olanrewaju Ahmed, said he had borrowed money to buy the building materials in order to complete his personal house.
He asked the government to intervene in the situation triggered by the nation’s economy that has slid into recession.
Mr Ahmed believes such intervention would reduce the sufferings of the masses.
In another part of the nation, Asaba, the capital of Delta State, sales persons at Chinedu Oko Building Materials Plaza along the Asaba-Onitsha expressway, lamented drastic reduction in sales and income.
Construction workers, however, believes that industrialisation and patronage of made in Nigeria goods would help reduce the pressure on the Naira which would in turn revamp the economy.
Figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics on August 31 showed that Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted by 2.06% in the second quarter of 2016
According to the report, the decline has caused the Naira to get weaker while lower oil prices dragged the oil sector down.