Finnish building invention, Block Solutions, has announced plans to establish a continental hub in Kigali, early next year, as part of the company’s efforts to service the African market.

Markus Silfverberg, the firm's founder, announced the development during an exclusive interview with The New Times on Tuesday, September 27.

Block Solutions produces 'eco-blocks', a mix of recycled plastic and left over wood fibers.

Silfverberg is among the 17 heads of companies from Nordic countries who are in Kigali to among others vie investment opportunities, as well as interact with Rwandan counterparts.

The Nordics include Finland, Sweden and Denmark.

According to him, the company already produces blocks in Ghana, Egypt while there is also progress in Kenya, Uganda and Namibia. However, they intend to have their continental headquarters in Rwanda, once the facility is completed.

"We have already secured five hectares in the industrial zone, and even though it is still at infant stage, we want to start producing our products beginning next year," he said.

Outside Africa, the company operates factories in North America, South America and Asia.

Once the recycling facility is up, we should be able to start producing them, Silfverberg added.

"We had many options but it's a stable surrounding over here and one of the things is that it's so proactive. And it's been so easy to deal with the process over here."

As it stands, the firm has already imported goods and various raw materials from Finland, and has also built a model house of the products.

"Once the factory is set up, we are talking about an investment worth $2.5 million."

Then the hub is going to operate all our factories ranging from Ghana, Kenya, Uganda.

Bringing down emissions

The biggest thing is to cut down the carbon footprint of the products.

Silfverberg explains that the construction sector contributes about 39 percent of carbon emissions in the world, "So we need to do something."

Other upsides of the products, he said, allows for a very quick building process.

"It took six days to build an Indonesian school that had been destroyed by an earthquake back in 2018.

"It would usually take around three to six months [to build a school] but these blocks are fully interlocking and come in groups of two, four, and eight, which makes things quicker,” Silfverberg reiterated.

"Basically we are collecting waste plastics mixing that with different fibers, for example palm trees, we can mix that together making that into a mass, and then make pellets out of them before they are manufactured."

Asked about the cost however, he said that if the products are compared to the normal blocks it is slightly more expensive.

".. but when it comes to the end price of the house its actually less expensive."

The development comes at a time Rwanda is pursuing different eco-friendly housing initiatives to relieve affordable but also urban housing.

Rwanda enjoys a close collaboration with business Finland according to Lucky Philip, senior investment and promotion officer at Rwanda Development Board.

"The time is now for these companies to come and be able to visit the country because there is one way of hearing the narrative from us, but also putting things into perspective. "

And also looking at the sector where they have invested, Philip believes that they are very much aligned with priority sectors.