Unfortunately it’s not all good news in East Africa. Apparently, cement prices in East Africa “need” to be kept artificially high to “protect” cement manufacturers in the East African Community from cheaper imports, or so say the East African Business Council (EABC). They are appealing for the introduction of an import tariff of 35 per cent or $50 per tonne- whichever is higher. The perversity of this is obvious; East Africa is experiencing an acute housing shortage, of over a million homes in Uganda alone, and suffering from chronic underinvestment in infrastructure- both problems that cheaper cement would help to mitigate.

Rather than welcome cheap cement imports from Pakistan and India, which sell for 50 to 60 per cent less than the domestically produced products, the EABC claims that it is unfair and request that the market is protected from all but their own producers.

The high price of cement produced in East Africa is blamed upon high energy costs, poor infrastructure and long distances between cement manufacturing plants and consumers. Ultimately, these are problems the domestic producers need to address- and not by passing on the costs to businesses and consumers. Rather, they should invest their efforts in persuading their government to help bring down the costs of doing business that are currently making them un-competitive- such as the terrible state of the roads and the debilitating administrative barriers to conducting business.

Without tackling these, the real barriers to trade, they will never be able to compete with cheaper imports and will always require protection. This in turn will keep the price of cement artificially high and will continue to harm the people who need access to decent roads and affordable housing.