TheCable

Disclosing this on Friday at the premises of Obajana Cement Company in Kogi State, Dangote said the move will help to stabilise prices of cement in the open market, and also make the product available in all parts of the country.

The businessman, who spoke after conducting the visiting President of Tanzania, Dr. Jakaya Kikwete, on a facility tour of the the plant, attributed the scarcity of cement in recent times to low production between January and March.

He said the low production followed the yearly turn around maintenance of the plants at Ibeshe, Obajana and other parts of the country; and he assured Nigerians that the prices of cement will drop to between N1, 450 and N1, 550 — its normal price — very soon.

The business mogul said the president of Tanzania was at the cement plant to see things first hand, and to enable him have a foretaste of a cement plant that Tanzania plans to replicate.

He said the plant, being established in Tanzania at a cost of $600 million, would have the capacity to produce 3 million tonnes of cement per annum.

According to him, construction work at the plant has reached 30 per cent completion stage, and work is being intensified to ensure its completion and inauguration in 2015.

In his remarks, President Kikwete said that he took time off the World Economic Forum holding in Abuja to visit the plant, in order to have an idea of what his country would experience after the completion of the plant.

He described what he saw as “wonderful,’’ saying that his country would be looking forward to seeing the same or better facilities.

NAN