The youth of Aflao are enraged over what they say is the suffocation of the operations of Diamond Cement; a local cement manufacturer, following the influx of Nigeria’s Dangote cement into the Ketu South Municipality.
The youth, who are mostly casual workers of Diamond Cement in Aflao, say manufacturers of Dangote Cement are being given an undue advantage over Diamond Cement because they have been allowed to import bagged cements from Nigeria into the country which are sold at lower prices.
According to them, Diamond cement has lost 40 percent of the market share.
“For the past few weeks, our town has been inundated with over 1,000 trucks loaded with already bagged cement from Nigeria. The trucks stop at Aflao and the cements in the truck are off loaded to the open market. This practice of flooding the market to the disadvantage of our local cement producing companies is not competitive. It is a very dangerous economic policy by the government of Ghana. Our checks from Diamond Cement revealed that the company in the last two months lost close to 40 percent of its market share to cheaply imported Dangote Cement from neighboring Nigeria”.
At a news conference held in Aflao, the Spokesperson of the group, Mengistu Agorbia, told Citi News their fear is that Diamond Cement which has plants in Aflao might lay off workers.
“If this trend continues, Diamond Cement would lay off our brothers who work and earn their living from there. Diamond Cement Ghana Limited produces cement at Aflao and employs directly over 600 people and over 1,000 people indirectly. The issue of violent crimes such as robbery has reduced significantly since the coming of Diamond Cement into Aflao” he said.
The group has thus called on government to control the market by providing a level playing field for the two companies where both companies are made to manufacture their products in Ghana.
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By: King Nobert Akpablie/citifmonline.com/Ghana