Nigeria has saved $2 billion from local production of cement in the past one year Chairman, BUA Group, Abdulsamad Rabiu, has said.

Rabiu spoke to State House reporters yesterday in Abuja, at the end of the Presidential Industrial Policy and Competitiveness Advisory Council chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

He said the reduction in the importation of the product has reduced the need for foreign exchange for the product.

He said: “The most important thing I think, is that the cement industry in Nigeria has, and will continue to save Nigeria a lot of foreign exchange.

“If for example, you look at what we have produced in Nigeria today, maybe 25 to 30 million tons, if we quantify that in terms of foreign exchange, it is almost $2 billion per year.

“That is a lot of money being saved because if we do not have these cement plants, definitely we hve to import.”

He said there are prospects for Nigeria to achieve higher savings from increasing local production of cement in the near future.

“We will be commissioning our Sokoto plant next quarter, early 2018 and also our Edo second cement line will come on stream probably by second quarter of next year.” he said.

On the purpose of the visit to the Villa, he said: “We are here this evening to attend the monthly Presidential Advisory Council meeting with the Vice President and we discussed a lot of issues.

“As you all know, this Council is one that is trying to bring the private sector together with the government, to come up with ideas on how we can improve on a lot of things, most especially infrastructure, power, roads and so many other things. I believe this is a good thing.

“This is the third meeting we are having today and we will have another meeting next month.”

Rabiu said the Council has made a lot of progress and a lot of areas have been identified that the government, together with the private sector are going to work together to see that work can start as soon as possible.

Source- The Nation