Cement price hike: CPPE faults Reps’ comment on manufacturers

…Says private sector account for over 80% of Nigeria’s GDP

By Seun Ibiyemi

The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, CPPE, has said that the recent comments of House of Representatives members against cement manufacturers over price hikes are hurting investment in the sector.

The private sector plays a very critical role in the economy. They account for over 80 percent of the country’s GDP, about 90 percent of the employment and over 70 percent of the government revenue.

The Director of CPPE, Dr Muda Yusuf, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday made available to Nigerian NewsDirect.

He stated that members alleged that the manufacturers were exploitative as they engaged in arbitrary fixing of cement price. Some members even described the manufacturers as unpatriotic.

“These were narratives on the floor of the house which we consider to be most unfair to investors in the cement sector, especially when the perspectives of the cement manufacturers had not been heard by the members of the house .

“Most of the remarks at the session were capable of inciting the public against the cement manufacturers and putting their huge investments at risk. It is a dangerous thing to do, given the huge stake they have in the Nigerian economy and their enormous contributions to the economy.

“We plead with the leadership of the house to ensure moderation in the use of language to avoid adverse consequences for investors in the economy, going forward. It is even more troubling that the members have not listened to the manufacturers before rushing to judgment and castigating the manufacturers.

“Cement manufacturers were disparaged, denigrated and portrayed as deliberately inflicting pains on the Nigerians by arbitrarily increasing the price of cement.

“This is most unfair in our humble opinion. Such weighty allegations should be premised on painstaking study, empirical facts and evidence. The dimensions of the pricing dynamics need to be properly understood.”

Dr Muda said that for an economy seeking to industrialise, attract investors and create jobs, such commentaries represent negative signaling. Principles of fairness demand that the cement manufacturers should be given an opportunity to tell their own story before members could come to a fair conclusion and judgement.

“But regrettably, they have been judged publicly, before giving them the opportunity to present their own side of the story. We believe this is a breach of the norms and standards of fairness and equity.

“It is even more painful because the major players in the sector are indigenous companies making giant strides amidst a very difficult operating environment including the multitudes of macroeconomic and structural headwinds. They have created hundreds of thousands of jobs (directly and indirectly], and paid billions of naira in taxes. This is coupled with numerous corporate social responsibility initiatives to which they have committed billions of naira.”

He added that the business of manufacturing is perhaps the most challenging enterprise in the contemporary Nigerian economy. Many foreign firms in that space have either exited the country or downsized their operations.

“We appeal to the national assembly to always extend due courtesies to investors in the economy in the course of their legislative duties,” he said