The cost of road construction in the Eastern Province could soon reduce thanks to the new stone and sand plant in Rwamagana District, Eastern Province.

The plant that uses Chinese technology is expected to increase supply of locally-produced construction materials, especially stone aggregates and sand.

This will help reduce the cost of road construction especially in rural areas, according to Alex Tindimwebwa, the project manager at Niss Machinery and Construction Company.

The project will produce high quality aggregates and sand for road construction and the real estate sector, he told Business Times over the weekend.

He said the Rwf300 million facility, which was supported by Business Development Fund (BDF), has the capacity to produce more than 500 tonnes of stone aggregates per day.

It will create over 1,000 jobs in Rwamagana District, he added.

Government has been encouraging investors in areas that can help reduce importation of raw materials in different sectors of the economy.

Therefore, firms like this have heed government’s call, a move that will help reduce the country’s import bill and make construction industry more competitive, according to Minister of Trade, Industry, and East African Community Affairs Francois Kanimba. Contractors and real estate developers have for long blamed shortage of raw materials locally as big challenge that pushes up costs in the sector.

Construction materials, mainly steel, cement and aggregated stones, among others, constitute 10 per cent of Rwanda’s imports.

The country is currently experiencing a construction boom, making Niss the plant timely as it will boost local production of construction materials for the domestic and regional markets.