Nigeria Gives Cement Manufacturers Incentives to boost output
Cement manufacturers in Nigeria can bring in machines and other equipment without paying import duty for three years as part of the government’s strategy to boost production of the building material and cut prices.
The companies will also get concessionary “pricing and special allocation” of fuel oil, as well as “tax-deductible incentives on investments,” Finance Minister, Mansur Muhtar, said yesterday in a statement e-mailed from his office in the capital, Abuja.
The government of the west African country also announced steps that will help ease the importation of cement until 2013 when Nigeria is expected to become self-sufficient in its manufacture, Muhtar said.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, with more than 140m people, is experiencing a construction boom, led by massive infrastructure development.
Local manufacturers, including Benue Cement Co. Plc, the country’s largest; Obajana Cement Co. Ltd.; Lafarge Cement Wapco Nigeria Plc; Northern Nigeria Cement Co. Plc and Unicem Cement Co., are modernizing old plants and building new ones to take advantage of the boom.
Total domestic production is about 6.2Mt, with aggregate consumption an estimated 13.4Mt, CSL Stockbrokers, a unit of First City Monument Bank Plc, said in a research note in August. Published under Cement News
