Nigeria Abroad
While he enjoys a free market reign in Nigeria, Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote is not beyond state control in Zambia, a Southern African country of some 17 million people.
Alongside two other leading cement makers in Zambia, Dangote Cement has had its pricing regulated by the government for at least one year up from March 2021. Many Nigerians are wishing for such state intervention in the price of cement.
The billionaire whose relationship scandal with an American lady created online hoopla months ago, entered Zambia in 2015 as a major player: his firm’s entry sparked a huge price fall that benefitted cement buyers in the country at the time.
But prices kept going up again since last year after three Zambian cement makers, including Dangote Cement, were suspected to have colluded and fixed rates, with Zambia’s Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) initiating an investigation that finally penalized two of the firms last month.
Dangote escaped penalty for “cooperating with the investigation” but, along with the other two players, has been mandated to “revert to the pre-cartel price of K99-K110” per bag of 50kg, a Zambian news outlet reports.
“The investigation established that company representatives from Mpande Limestone Limited, Dangote Cement Zambia Limited and Lafarge Zambia Plc held discussions and meetings which resulted in the development of a pricing philosophy to stop cement price reductions,” a CCPC statement said.
“The investigations also established that the cement companies had agreed on a flat rebate of ZMW3 sometime in December 2019.” CCPC said such meeting, which involved sharing of commercial information among the parties, was illegal, anti-competition, undermined infrastructure development in the country, and was “detrimental to (Zambian) consumers.”
Whether compelled or organic, Dangote cement prices in Zambia are incomparable to what Nigerians are paying for the product at home: Dangote cement rates went above N4,000 recently, and are around N3,500 at the moment—about double the offer in Zambia.
And Nigerians on social media are not having it. Several videos have been posted recently online by influencers lamenting the surge fueled what they call the Dangote monopoly.
On Twitter, many are kicking against the situation, some citing how Zambia’s consumer protection agency intervened and saved citizens from the grip of capitalists—while Nigeria, in a worse situation, stays helpless.
On the comments sections of several reports about the development, Nigerians bemoaned a lack of competition in the cement market as well government’s unwillingness to rein in the price surge.
Others also said the cost of producing the product in Zambia as opposed to in Nigeria, as well as other market factors, may be responsible for the price difference.
At the time of this report, Dangote Cement Zambia had yet to respond to Nigeria Abroad’s request for comment on the development.
This story first appeared in Nigeria Abroad
