Chairman of BUA Group,
Alhaji Abdulsamad Rabiu, has appealed to the
business community, as well
as private Nigerians to exercise
a little more patience with the
Bola Tinubu administration as it
works to achieve stability in the
foreign exchange market.
Alhaji Rabiu, who made the
appeal on Tuesday while speaking to journalists at the State
House, Abuja, after he met met
with President Bola Tinubu at
the Aso Rock Villa, also maintained that the BUA Group had
slashed the price of its cement
from N4,500 to N3,500 per bag.
On BUA’s promise to slash
cement price, he said “it is actually taking effect. The price of
cement from BUA Group has
been reduced from N4,500 to
N3,500 per bag, it is happening, as a matter of fact, I just discussed the issue of cement with Mr. President.
Rabiu, explained that the
President had taken the needed
step to reset the economy, noted
that though it was a hard decision to take, it was the right one
because what the nation was
operating hitherto was not sustainable, adding that the foreign
exchange market had already
started showing signs of ease.

On the harsh effect of the reforms introduced by the administration, especially as it affects
foreign exchange market, he
said “the unification of the Naira (foreign exchange windows)
needed to be done, the subsidy
removal was needed because we
simply could not afford what we
were doing.
“So I believe we should just be
a bit patient, things are already
getting better, if you check you’ll
see that the exchange rate in the
black market has gone to as high
as N1,300 to $1, today, it’s about
N1,150 and it will continue to
come down.

“A lot of issues, uncertainties
and panic, that is settling and
we’re seeing a situation where
the exchange rate is coming
down because once it gets to a
level where people are not able
to afford it, nobody will buy
and if you don’t buy, it will come
down.
“So my message is that we
should be patient, things will
definitely get better. Nigeria is
endowed with huge resources,
we’re a country of over 220 million people with huge resources
across the country.
“If you look at the business

we’re in now, the cement busi

ness, almost 80% of everything
we need to produce cement is
here in Nigeria, local and those
are the kinds of things we need
to encourage mining, agriculture because we have the land,
we have the people and we have
the climate and the water.
“So all we need to do is to
harness these resources that
God has endowed us with. I believe that it’s a temporary thing,
things will definitely get better,
we just need to be patient”, he
said.

He called on all Nigerians to
come round the President to
support him to deliver on his
promises and to rebuild the
country as all citizens are yearning to see a better nation.
“During my discussions with
Mr President, I could see the
passion, I could see the burning desire, the commitment in
him to deliver, but again, Mr
President alone cannot do it, we
need to come and support him
to ensure that he delivers. I believe I’m speaking the minds of
all Nigerians by that.
“As a Nigerian and also as a
business owner, I want to see a
Nigeria that is stable, a country
that is prosperous and we can
only achieve that if we come
together to support the government, support one another and
support Mr President.

“So it is our collective responsibility to do that and I’m sure
all Nigerians will agree with me
that the support is needed so
that we can progress and prosper because without stability, it
will be very hard, we’ll not be
able to achieve the prosperity
we need in this country.
“So for us to prosper, we need
to be stable, for us to be stable,
we need to come together and
support each other, support our
government. Nigeria is the only
country we have and we must
all come together and support
one another to ensure that we
get the prosperity that we so
much desire and deserve”, he
said.