The Executive Secretary of the Ghana Real Estate Development Association (GREDA), Sammy Amegayibor, has downplayed the possibility of the government’s directive to the Cement Manufacturing Development Committee (CMDC) to instruct cement manufacturing companies to reverse the recent increase in cement prices.
Mr. Amegayibor expressed surprise at the astronomical increase imposed on cement prices in the country stating that it will affect the work of builders which will lead to an increase in the price of houses.
Speaking in an interview with Nathan Quao on the Citi Breakfast Show on Citi FM, Mr. Amegayibor said the price difference between the various “brands of cement when the starting price for cement was GH¢45 was just GH¢1 but the difference now is between GH¢8 and GH¢10.”
“Just yesterday [Thursday], cement prices went up by about GH¢10 and GH¢12 and the starting price of cement is now GH¢85 upwards,” Mr Amegayibor added.
The Minister for Trade and Industry, K. T. Hammond, on May 8, in an address at the inauguration of the CMDC, directed that cement prices be checked and halted and also requested the publication of the retail prices of cement by all cement manufacturers in the country to stop the continuous arbitrary price increases.
But Mr Amegayibor told Nathan Quao that it would be difficult to achieve such a directive in a free market economy like Ghana’s
“If my minister issues a statement that there is a concern with cement prices, I agree with him. However, I don’t know how that will work because we are in a free market economy and it will be difficult to achieve that but the request must be fair.
“The manufacturer struggled to produce the product and we would have wished to know the government’s contribution toward helping to bring down the price.”
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