EPOMA:

To divide walls inside needs pure skills, do we have places where people can learn this? no. we dont like learnin new things

mystikal:

I would think d reasonable thing 2 do is look at tackling the reasons for the acute increases in Cement prices.
Anyway GEJ wouldn't be the 1st to interfere in the free market, You need to show me a country's govt who hasn't at one point or the other.

Someone mentioned using wood or other materials as internal walls in houses. I have always wondered why that isn't the case. Is there a reason that is not cool?

kalokalo:

People talking about monopoly in Nigeria's cement industry are ignorant. Where is the monoply when cement makers in Nigeria are Lafarge Wapco, Ashaka, Unicem, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria, Dangote and rebaggers are Ibeto, Flour Mills, Eagle Cement and BUA cement. So where is the monopoly? How can an industry with 9 players be a monopoly?

What stops anyone from setting their own cement plant and selling at N500 so as to crash prices? We want to travel all the way to china to import dust when the raw materials to make that dust are abundant in our own backyard.

kalokalo:

People talking about monopoly in Nigeria's cement industry are ignorant. Where is the monoply when cement makers in Nigeria are Lafarge Wapco, Ashaka, Unicem, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria, Dangote and rebaggers are Ibeto, Flour Mills, Eagle Cement and BUA cement. So where is the monopoly? How can an industry with 9 players be a monopoly?

What stops anyone from setting their own cement plant and selling at N500 so as to crash prices? We want to travel all the way to china to import dust when the raw materials to make that dust are abundant in our own backyard.

Wallie:

Edit------ ^^^^^+1

The people talking about monopoly are not any more ignorant than you. I was one of those talking about monopoly but I should have been a lot clearer that I was generally referring to anti-competitive behaviors, and more specifically to “collusion.”

In this instance, you have an oligopoly that consists of less than a dozen companies, that appears to price fix for their mutual benefit. It doesn’t matter it the oligopoly includes a thousand companies. What matters is that the decision of a few significantly affects the market.

The danger of collusion is that increasing pricing does not result in loss of sales due to lack of alternative (licensing restriction).

belabela:

ABUJA — PIQUED by the soaring prices of cement in the country, President Goodluck Jonathan, Monday, summoned the Chairman of Dangote Group, and other cement manufacturers with a directive to crash the prices of the product within 30 days period or [b]face the wrath of the government.[/b]

Whatever is the wrath of government.

morpheus24:

Then you should have said Oligopoly in the first place to clarify on your point.

Price ceilings in complex global marketing systems, influenced by numerous external factors that dictate supply and demand, is not sustainable simply because Mr. President wants to pose for us. Not much sound economical reasoning.

In the short run artificially pegging these prices to pacify the massess will result in larger increases in future prices stemming from speculative predictions of where the price of cement is of course likely to head

If successful I suggest those who want to build better stack wharehouses of cement while the price is down cause its going to be a short ride baby hehehehehe!

dayokanu:

[size=18pt]The same thing Buhari did by fixing the prices of comodities in 1984 and many GEJ campaigners lampooned him for it

Fresh air indeed with Buhari 1984 flavour[/size]

At the end of the meeting, which lasted about four hours, both sides agreed to address challenges identified as the reasons for the development.

The Federal Government promised to ensure the availability of diesel at reduced prices for the manufacturers.

The scarcity and high cost of diesel was mentioned by the manufacturers as one of the factors responsible for the hike in the price of cement.

On their part, the manufacturers, under the aegis of Cement Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, made a commitment to increase production and liberalise distribution.

manny4life:

It can when restriction are lessened on one or two companies and more on the others; monopolistic competition is not the number of players but rather the number of market share controlled in a given industry. They might be 9 players but if Dangote controls about 50% or more of the market, there's some serious antitrust issues at hand. Hypothetically speaking, each should control at least 9% of the market if everything is equal but given the size of each company some might control a lil bit more than the other.

Wallie:

Edit------ ^^^^^+1

The people talking about monopoly are not any more ignorant than you. I was one of those talking about monopoly but I should have been a lot clearer that I was generally referring to anti-competitive behaviors, and more specifically to “collusion.”

In this instance, you have an oligopoly that consists of less than a dozen companies, that appears to price fix for their mutual benefit. It doesn’t matter it the oligopoly includes a thousand companies. What matters is that the decision of a few significantly affects the market.

The danger of collusion is that increasing pricing does not result in loss of sales due to lack of alternative (licensing restriction).

I think that the government is on the right track by stepping in.

To people questioning whether Nigeria is a capitalist economy, Nigeria sure is but the cement industry is not a “free market.” In other words, new market entrants are not allowed to come in because the government grants exclusive rights to produce/import cement to the selected 5 companies (or however many they are).

Whenever there’s a restriction on new market entrants due to nature of the business, the government has no choice but to create some kind of regulation to govern the oligarchy. In a free market, business people will be allowed to import/produce cement if they have the money to fund such a venture.