Dangote Group has distanced itself from the raging controversy that cement sold in Nigeria are of the 32.5 grade that can only be used for plastering, culvert and other low level construction grade.
The company said it is within the realm of Standard Organisation of Nigeria, SON, to fish out those manufacturing and selling 32.5 grade and ensure that only the prescribed standard cement is sold in Nigeria. Dangote Group added that it is only the regulator that can spot the difference as there are no physical features to determine the grade except through laboratory test.
But other cement manufacturers differ, saying that there should be no limitation on cement products in the market place as the 32.5 grade has been part of building in Nigeria for 54 years. They said “We believe fundamentally that consumers should have a choice of products to suit their needs and applications. Current and future standards should continue to ensure that there is a good environment for choice, competition and quality.
“It is a fact that in the last few years, there has been more innovation and product choice, which has actually generated price reductions for end users.
It has been suggested that cement products should be limited and some removed from the market. Products such as 32.5 have actually been part of building in Nigeria for the last 54 years and are used widely throughout the world.
Limiting product choices will not be good for the consumer and will send the industry backwards and away from current international trend,” the manufacturers stressed, while assuring that the cement manufacturing community will “continue to support all initiatives in conjunction with other stakeholders to eradicate building collapse.”
Messrs Dangote Cement Nigeria Plc pointedly dissociated itself from the companies producing 32.5grade cement in the country. The company explained that it produces only the 42.5 grade of cement in its three plants at Ibeshe, Gboko and Obajana.
Dangote Group’s Director of Sales and Marketing, Mr. Ekanem Etim, who made the clarifications at a news briefing in Lagos, called on SON to enforce the regulation that only cement that meets the 42.5 grade is manufactured or imported into the country.
He noted that before now when cement was largely imported, SON had insisted that only 42.5 grade of cement was allowed into Nigeria and wondered why upon domestication of production, the same regulation should not be applied.
Earlier last week, other cement manufacturers in Nigeria had distanced themselves from the recent claim that poor cement quality is responsible for the growing wave of building collapse in the country.
The manufacturers, who debunked the claim, comprised Ashaka Cement Plc, Lafarge WAPCO Plc, Northern Cement Company of Nigeria, Sokoto and United Cement Company Plc, Calabar. But the Dangote group was not represented at that meeting.
