Gov’t must address high price of cement, other materials – GREDA

The Executive Secretary of the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA), Samuel Amegayibor, has described the rise in price of cement as worrying.

This is after the Chamber of Cement Manufacturers Ghana had indicated the price of a bag of cement is likely to hit GH₵60 by the end of the year due to taxes and levies that affect production cost.

Over the past seven months, the retail price has shot up three times, hitting a 27% increment. A bag of Cement now sells at GH₵ 50.00.

Mr Amegayibor, has said, the prices of all building materials have increased and that would be passed on to Ghanaians.

“What you can do to bring down the cost of materials is to reduce taxes. Because it is a percentage of importation cost and the importation has gone up, any tax component that is a percentage of the product and the product are not in the country and is being imported, and the cost has gone up it means the government is automatically benefiting from increasing taxes,” he emphasised.

Mr Amegayibor made these comments on the Sunrise morning show on 3FM on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Cement Manufacturers Ghana, Rev Dr Dawson Ahmaoh, said, the price hikes could be attributed to internal factors including the unavailability of the raw materials for cement manufacturing and the lack of vessels to transport the materials.

In addition to this, is clinker, which constitutes 80% of the cement component, is said to be in short supply because many outlets outside the country have shut down due to the COVID- 19 pandemic.

Currently, the manufacturers pay about $1M or $500,000 as penalty anytime the vessel delays at the port.

At the last count, cement-manufacturing firms in Ghana was seven in all, including the latest entry, Dangote.

Ghana Cement (GHACEM), which used to be the sole producer and distributor of the strategic asset, was believed to be a major contributor to the price hikes in the past.

However, according to GREDA, the situation has rather worsened despite the entry of more manufacturers.

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