Artisanal and Small-scale miners dealing in development minerals have taken a hit over the last couple of months over soaring cement prices.
The price of cement has nearly doubled, from twenty-six thousand shillings (UGX 26,000) to thirty-two thousand five hundred shillings (UGX 32,500) and now forty-two thousand shillings (UGX42,000) within the space of a month.
ASMs operating in districts where building substances are a crucial source of livelihood are now reporting dwindling sales.
In Lira district, miners report a reduction in demand for their stone aggregates as a result of high cement prices. Anthony Odida, an aggregate miner explains that the two go hand in hand, saying they are now supplying just a few construction companies that place orders once in a while.
The usually busy Apila quarry where he operates sold only five (5) trucks of aggregates in the previous week, a drastic decline from the fifteen to twenty trucks sold daily before the rise in cement prices.
“We now have a lot of stock without market,” he says.
Komakech Patrick from Bardege stone quarry in Gulu says usually, they are stocked with about eight (8) tons of aggregates during the rainy season at a site with over four hundred miners, but this time round they have over one hundred (100) tons of aggregates, and no market.
“Personally, I have been stuck with over four (4) trips of aggregates and three (3) of slates for a month. There is no market. I have even failed to take my children to school,” laments Komakech.
Comfort Okello, a leader at Bardege reports that the women at the quarry are suffering due to the low demand for aggregates.
“Women cannot afford even beans of one thousand shillings. I sell beans and yesterday I gave beans on credit worth ninety-three thousand shillings,” she laments.
She said that in the last one week, a few miners were able to supply only seven (7) trucks of aggregates, a drastic decline from the fifteen (15) per day from before the rise in cement prices.
“Recently our area Local Council chairperson died but we could not even contribute four thousand shillings each for condolences; instead, each gave two jerry cans of aggregates which was in abundance,” Comfort says, adding that members have failed to raise school fees.
Emphasising that the women at Bardege stone quarry are desperate, she reflected:
“This is similar to what happened in 2020 when hardware stores were closed during the lockdown.”
The situation is not any better closer to the national capital. Damba Mubiru, a miner from Kayunga district in Wakiso, reports that his clients have halted construction because of expensive cement and other mateals.
He pointed out that his quarry that used to sell twenty (20) trips of sand in a week now sell only about five (5).
Diana Ssebowa from Mbalala quarry in Mukono district reported that middlemen were over eating into their profits by offering very low prices for their hard-core stones as a result of scarcity of clients. “Everything has gone up yet we are still selling at very low prices,” she says.
A truck of hard-core stones that was previously going for ninety thousand (UGX 90,000) now costs seventy-five thousand shillings (UGX 75,000).
She further reported that a number of people have since abandoned the quarry for alternative sources of livelihood.
