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Local cement manufacturers ask for protection 

Chairman of the Association, Rev. Dr. George Dawson Amoah, said the local industry needs to be protected in order for them to be sustained.

Bags of cement

The Cement Manufacturers Association of Ghana is calling for governmental protection to save the industry from eminent collapse.

According to them, the influx of cheap foreign cements into the market from China and Nigeria is pushing them out of business. The consequences, they say, could lead to the collapse of the local cement industry.

In an interview with Accra based Citi FM, Chairman of the Association, Rev. Dr. George Dawson Amoah, said the local industry needs to be protected in order for them to be sustained.

“How do you encourage a local industry to expand and to invest then you keep a blind eye and encourage what we call imports? If the private sector is the engine of growth, then why don’t we encourage the private sector here in Ghana to utilize its capacity? he quizzed.

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“If the Chinese government is actually subsidizing and even giving discounts for them to actually import into their country, then it is also an issue because the problem is that, then what safe measures are putting in place as a country to protect the local industry?”

In November this year, cement loading workers at Aflao in the Volta region demonstrated against the importation of Dangote cement into the country from Nigeria.

The importation, they claim has created unfair competition for the cement manufacturing company there, Diamond Cement.

According to them, Diamond Cement has cut down on production from 5,000 to 3,000 tonnes a day and plans to sack some workers.

Dangote Cement Ghana Limited has however dismissed suggestions that its imports are posing unfair competition against Diamond cement in the Volta Region.

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“We don’t think we are competing unfairly. It is fair because we are operating under the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme (ETLS). Within the ECOWAS region", the Sales and Marketing Manager, Joseph Kwabena Abu, spoke with JOY BUSINESS.

"We pay the right duties based upon the rules of the ETLS and we are not with-holding any tax so I don’t think its unfair. For Diamond Cement as they are fighting, they started bringing their goods from Togo in the year 2000 and nobody raised an alarm.

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