Exploit local materials to boost affordable housing

Great improvement in the business climate and heavy investment in infrastructure has resulted in Rwanda’s average annual economic growth rate of 8 per cent over the past years, the fastest in the region.As the economy grows, Rwanda naturally continues to become attractive to business people, investors and migrant workers looking for job opportunities in the country. This is increasing demand for housing.Already, current estimates put the demand for decent and affordable housing at 100,000 units per year. And as younger Rwandans graduate from universities and colleges to join the labour market every year, the demand for houses will inevitably go up.There is, therefore, urgent need to scale up investment in the housing sector in order to meet this demand. A foreign investor, Eckardt Dauck, from Germany who is setting up a factory to produce straw board panels, primary building materials for mass housing projects, says this is only possible when local and cheaper building materials become available.In other words, we need to start looking at ways of substituting imported construction materials with locally made products to bring down the cost of constructing a house.It is understood that most of the building materials used in the country – including cement, timber, tiles, steel bars and iron sheets – are imported. Some come from as far as South Africa and from Asian countries.While importing some materials for high-end building projects cannot be avoided in the short term, it is possible to use local products to make materials good enough to build decent low cost housing.That is why such projects as Eckardt Dauck’s investment in plant to make board panels from wheat husks are good ventures that should be supported because not only will they provide affordable building materials, they are also environmentally friendly and add value to local products.

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Exploit local materials to boost affordable housing