The price of cement is reported to have shot up in the Upper West Region within the past month following an acute shortage of the commodity. Previously sold at ¢80,000 per bag, it is now at ¢90,000 and even then, it is not available on the open market. The development, according to the Ghana News Agency has seen most on-going development projects brought to a standstill. Projects that have been severely affected by the scarcity are, building projects and construction of culverts and drains. Ghana News Agency said it saw empty shops when it went round the retail outlets in Wa to assess the situation, with "NO Cement" notices displayed in front of some of them. While some of the dealers put the blame on the manufacturers of the product, others attributed the shortage to the inability of Distributors to get vehicles to cart the product to the region. Mr Abubakari Hamid, a prominent cement dealer in Wa who had no single bag of the product in his shop when the GNA got there, said the shortage was a national problem and blamed GHACEM for creating the situation. Asked whether the current price would come down when the commodity was made available, he said the price would never go below 85,000 cedis per bag since GHACEM was noted for increasing the price of the commodity every three months. Mr John Ibrahim Donkor, a Wa-based Building Contractor, said they had information that all the articulated trucks were now engaged in carting cocoa beans to the ports for export and their owners found that a more profitable venture than carting cement to the north. He said unless an immediate solution was found to the problem, they would not be able to complete their projects on schedule. Source GNA