Nigeria: The Senate of Nigeria has called for the federal government to introduce policies, such as tax breaks, to encourage local investments in cement production. The upper legislative chamber made the resolution following a debate about a bill intended to relax rules surrounding cement policy in the country, according the Punch newspaper. It also requested the federal government to provide more industrial incentives and protections such as offering concessionary loans and larger tax incentives for new entrants in order to boost production of cement, reduce prices and encourage more ‘valuable’ local producers.
Senator Lola Ashiru, one of the co-sponsors of the bill, noted that cement was one of the few building materials in which Nigeria was self-sufficient with production capacity reportedly over twice as high as estimated consumption in 2018. However, he said that cement prices in the country were about 240% higher than the global average.