Cement Price Hits ₦16,000, Builders Feel the Heat

Cement dealers across Nigeria have announced fresh price increases, with a 50kg bag now selling for as much as ₦16,000 in some markets, up from ₦13,000 recorded by buyers just days earlier.

The sudden increase has caught builders off guard, particularly those already midway through construction projects, and adds to the broader rise in building material costs that has persisted over the past two years.
BusinessDay reports that Jude Njoku, who is constructing a three-bedroom bungalow along the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, said the increase came without warning. He purchased bags at ₦13,000 each on Friday, but when he returned on Monday to buy more, dealers quoted ₦16,000 per bag.
Expressing his frustration, Njoku said, “I went back to buy more on Monday and was told that the price had gone up to ₦16,000 per bag. How can I continue this work at that price?”
The current prices represent a steep rise from late 2024, when a bag of cement sold for around ₦7,500. By the third quarter of 2025, the price had risen to about ₦9,000 before reaching the ₦12,000 to ₦16,000 range now recorded across different locations.
Other building materials have also followed a similar upward trend.
Blocks have increased from around ₦600 to ₦1,100 each, while sand has risen from ₦165,000 to ₦250,000 per 30 tonnes. Granite has increased from ₦530,000 to ₦780,000 per 30 tonnes, while reinforcing steel now costs ₦1.15 million per tonne, compared with ₦850,000 previously.
The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has been examining whether cement prices are being artificially inflated.
The commission said preliminary findings from a three-month investigation, contained in a 40-page field report by its Anticompetitive Practices Department, pointed to possible price manipulation.
Investigators examined why cement prices remain high despite Nigeria’s large limestone deposits and significant domestic production capacity. Nigeria has an installed annual cement production capacity of about 62.8 million metric tonnes.
Dangote Cement accounts for over 35 million metric tonnes of the capacity, BUA Group holds up to 20 million metric tonnes, while Lafarge Africa, now known as HBM Nigeria, has nearly 12 million metric tonnes.
The FCCPC said most major manufacturers cooperated with the investigation, although one declined to make its records available.
The government said the sharp increase in cement prices was driving up the cost of infrastructure projects and placing additional financial pressure on contractors handling public works.
The minister disclosed that contractors had increasingly asked the ministry to review existing contracts, citing the rising cost of cement and its impact on project execution.