The Cement Manufacturers Association of Ghana has denied reports that it planned to increase the price of cement by GH¢6.00.
“The association has not taken any such decision and urged the public to disregard such false reports,” the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Association, Bishop Dr George Dawson – Amoah, has disclosed.
He said this after meeting with the Minister of Trade, Industry and Agribusiness, Mrs Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, yesterday in Accra.
The meeting, which was the first between the manufacturers and the minister, was to discuss issues affecting the cement industry towards charting a new way forward.
The CEO stated that, “there is sanity in anything we do, there is understanding among ourselves; so far as cement manufacturing is concerned, the position and pricing of the manufacturers have always been the same and never changed”.
Mr Dawson-Amoah indicated that they were not against competition but rather against unfair trade practices and “these are discussions that we will be having in future deliberations to ensure that there is a level playing field to ensure that all manufacturers really have to comply with the law of the state.”
He commended the ministry for the guidance as far as compliance with the law was concerned and assured that the notice would be placed on the manufacturer’s platform in order to increase dialogue with the ministry.
He assured of self-regulatory exercises among members to ensure that their house was in order in terms of compliance with the laws governing them as well as meet the standards required from the Industry.
Mrs Ofosu-Adjare commended the manufacturers for honesty and noted that the prices of cement had reduced to GH¢107 for the 42.5 R and between GH¢80 and GH¢85 for the 32.5 R.
“Today we discussed a lot of factors that goes into cement manufacturing, once the exchange rate which has come down, we have a very stable macro-economic situation in the country and so the price of cement has been very stable and we have asked the manufacturers to keep the price as good as that,” she added.
She said the ministry was aware of what went into the cost of cement production; the exchange rate, issues of the demurrage and electricity but they tried to give prices that reflected the stability of the currency and the economy.
Moreover, the minister stated that the manufacturers had assured they would keep their prices at affordable rates adding, “ the produce are for us and as much as they want to make profit they must also ensures that consumers enjoy the stability we are experiencing.”
Mrs Ofosu Adjare noted that for now the law mandated manufacturers to disclose their factory prices for the public, because it was not fair that “we have a law that consumers don’t know about and so they are not able to understand how prices are done.”
BY LAWRENCE VOMAFA-AKPALU
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