Concerns over Ghana’s cement duopoly

The World Bank has expressed its concern over the dominance of Ghana Cement Company (Ghacem) and Diamond Cement Company in the sale of cement in the country, local press report.

The bank is worried that the two companies control more than 80 per cent of the market and suppress competition in the sector with negative consequences on the prices and supply of cement to the building and construction industry.

It has therefore called for urgent steps that would liberalise the market “to engender competition and drive down prices.”

“I do not see any justification for a ‘monopoly’ in the cement market in Ghana. It makes no economic sense,” a World Bank Lead Economist in the country, Mr Sebastien Dassus, told local press.