A cross-section of Nasarawa residents have decried the high cost of cement despite the price slash by manufacturers of the commodity.
The residents bare their minds in separate interviews at the weekend in Lafia.
It could be recalled that BUA cement had recently announced a reduction in their ex-factory price from N5,500 to N3,500 per bag.
The announcement came after Alh Abdulsamad Rabiu, the company’s chairman, met with President Bola Tinubu and promised to review the price downward.
Illiyasu Audu, a civil servant who is building his house in Lafia, said he had put the project on hold due to high cost of cement and other building materials.
He explained that the economy was seriously bitting hard with the consistent increase in the price of food items, transportation, school fees, and medical services, among others.
“It would take the grace of God for a civil servant to meet his responsibility at the family and still build his own house before he retires from service,” he added.
He appealed to the government to find a way to ensure a reduction in the price of cement and other building materials to enable the poor to own their houses.
Another respondent, Ombugadu Ovye, a bricklayer, said the high cost of cement and other building materials had forced many people to either change the plans of their projects to smaller ones or suspend work.
He also said that some block industries in Lafia had reduced the quality of their blocks in order to maximise profit.
“Most bricklayers, including myself, are redundant without work and find it difficult to feed our families,” he said.
Some cement dealers who preferred anonymity attributed the price to transportation, loading and offloading costs.
They claimed that the N3,500 announced by BUA is the cost of buying a bag of the product from the company.
When the Nigerian Tribune visited some cement retail shops in Lafia, it was discovered that the product is being sold between N4, 600 to N4, 800.
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