COLINBO Lauds SRIMEX for Breaking Cement Barrier

News and Events

COLINBO Lauds SRIMEX for Breaking Cement Barrier
George D. Kennedy, Liberian Observer
May 25, 2009

A local business organization has made a rallying call to Liberians to support the initiative of a Liberian businessman who has brought cement into the country.
The Concern Liberian International Business Organization (COLINBO) described the initiative by Mr. Musa Bility to successfully bring cement into Liberia as a 'new dawn' in the Liberian business history.

Speaking to economic reporters over the weekend, COLINBO's President, Fombah Trawally, said the move by the general manager of SRIMEX, Mr. Bility, to import cement into the country has brought about competition on the local cement market.

The demand for cement is very high in Liberia and that the lone producer of the commodity, CEMENCO, is finding it very difficult to meet up with this demand. A bag of cement is sold in Monrovia between US$9.50 to US$11 dollars.

Mr. Trawally, who is also a successful Liberian businessman, called on the Government to give the new cement importer all the necessary protection in order to ensure sustained competition on the cement market.

Mr.Trawally believes that competition in the cement market will gradually lead to a drop in the price of the commodity on the local market.

“A drop in cement price will enable low income earners to buy the commodity and build their homes thus fostering reconstruction of our country,” Mr. Trawally noted.
According to him, the importation of the more than two hundred thousand bags of cement in the country by Mr. Bility would shift the demand for the product in the next few months.

He called on the Liberian business community to rally around Mr. Bility's SRIMEX by purchasing cement from that company for construction and retail sale.
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“It was a very challenging period for me when I decided to import cement into my own country. I had no money. I was nearly out of business, but Ecobank came to my rescue. Before that my entire business was on the verge of collapsing,” said Mr. Bility when he spoke in Kakata recently.

Mr. Bility, who is also proprietor and chief executive officer of Renaissance Communications Inc, pointed out that his long vision to break the barrier within the cement industry has finally been realized.

“No more will there ever be any form of monopoly in the cement industry. Other Liberians have seen what I have gone through to import this cement and that I am sure they will begin to import soon,” Bility added.

He called on members of the Liberian business community to be honest and say the truth to the banks they transact with.

Musa Bility is one of the leading Liberian businessmen who have invested lots in the petroleum industry. His investment in this industry along with other Liberians has led to stability in the prices of petroleum products in the country.