Tapgun said this in an interview at the weekend in Abuja that by the end of next year, Nigeria would be self-sufficient in the local production of cement such that there would be no more importation of the commodity.
He said the shift in the date from Jan. 1, 2006 to December 2007, was necessitated by the fact that many of the cementcompanies in the country had embarked on expansion programmes in their factories to increase their production capacities.
“At the moment, cement factories are springing up all over the country. Flour Mills is building a cement factory in Calabar, Ashaka, Ewekoro and Benue cement are all expanding.
There is also WAPCO, Nkalagu and Ukpella .“There are a few others and we have told them that unless they show proof that they are expanding into the development of green fields, which is building the factory itself, no more licence will be given to them to import cement,” the minister said.
