$10m project to ease housing with green technology

A US firm, Global Marketing Partners, has divulged plans to invest over $10 million to construct 400 low-cost housing units using waste bio mass technology. Each housing unit is set to cost $16, 000The biomass technology is made up of wheat, rice and sorghum waste that is mixed to form a chemical applied to create panel boards. The technology will be the first of its kind in Africa after it was rolled out in many Asian countries. The panel boards are later reinforced with steel. According to the developers, houses made using the technology are fire resistant as boards do not contain oxygen. All the materials would be sourced locally. Speaking to The New Times, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Glenn E. Stamps, said his firm is ready to commence the construction once all feasibility studies are complete.“Once we have fully developed compliance with the national standards, we expect this to only take us 120 days to start,” Stamps said.The Investment Promotion and Implementation Department at Rwanda Development Board firm has already given the US firm the green light to set the project in motion.According to Stamps, the development would boost both the infrastructural and agricultural sectors and that using what they called agriculture advanced construction technology; building is usually faster than using brick walls.“The project will employ about 30 percent local constructors and we are very willing to transfer this technology to Rwandans,” he said.Once the project is successfully implemented, it would contribute to the annual demand of 25, 000 housing units for low and middle income earners.Nyarugenge District officials project low cost houses to range between Rwf 7 and 15 million, with middle-income houses going for Rwf 70 million.The Director General of Rwanda Housing Authority (RHA), Esther Mutamba, told The New Times that the government had put in place mechanisms to ensure that the construction of low cost houses is rolled out countrywide.“We are currently in negotiations with the European Union to support the project so that it is implemented countrywide.” She disclosed that her body had commissioned a study to determine the housing supply and demand in Kigali whose findings are due in July.The three districts of Nyarugenge, Gasabo and Kicukiro, which comprise the City of Kigali, recently identified sites for the construction of low cost housing, owing to the fact that most families might be affected by the ongoing implementation of the city master plan. Established in 1991, Global Marketing Partners USA is an international marketing and trade development consulting practice that creates public private partnerships that bring increased visibility to governments and their constituents through infrastructural investments and other development initiatives.

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$10m project to ease housing with green technology