The managing director, Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc, Dr Emmanuel Ukpabi, has said that the company has imported 10,000t of cement to check the non-availability of the product.

Ukpabi, who disclosed this on Wednesday in Lagos at a pre-AGM press briefing, said that the cement would arrive Nigeria in the next three weeks.

He said factors such as the high cost of diesel, high freight rate and inadequate means of transportation were responsible for the high cost of cement.

He urged consumers of the product not to entertain any fear as the firm’s subsidiary, United Cement Company in Calabar, Cross River, would start production by October, 2008.

The plant, he said, was designed to roll out 2.5Mt of cement of international standard annually, adding that it would generate employment in thousands.