Manufacturers of roof materials and providers of coating solutions are optimistic about the business options that result from the new housing projects, since the governments hurry to tackle the housing deficit caused by rapid urbanization and a lack of adequate urban planning.
In addition, the increase in available per capita income has led to an increase in demand for modern residential and commercial space.
Housing crisis
A combination of public and private initiatives go to East African countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda some of the challenges that hinder the realization of appropriate living space, such as: Increasing construction costs and increasing slums pave the way for massive housing projects.
In Kenya, the government is fighting to build at least 200,000 residential units every year to reduce the home deficit of two million. In Uganda, the government estimates the housing deficit to around 1.7 million residential units, which, according to previous government reports, will probably reach three million by 2030. In the neighboring Rwanda, an estimated 721,000 new apartments will be needed in the capital Kigali over the next seven years, and the government works with the private sector according to official estimates to realize the dream of affordable living space.
Although the real estate crisis in East Africa has prepared headaches in the region on the one hand, it has opened up business opportunities for innovative roof solutions, which are an essential driver for the growth of the roof coating market in the region.
Public and private house developers would try to protect their buildings from the effects of wind, water and UV light, even if there are still concerns about the suitability of existing residential designs to manage environmental risks.
For example, in cooperation with the design innovation company Takazuri based in Nairobi, BASF SE provides a umbrella material that, in its opinion, is tailored to the weather conditions of East Africa, especially during this time, in the governments and the private sector in the region for an effective climate change.
The roof and cladding material is equipped with the climatic technology of Takazuri, a patented roof and disguise solution that, according to the company, “improves climate resistance through improved insulation, solar energy and biophilic adaptation”. The material is made from collected and post-consumer materials as the main guy.
“Our products are designed for high performance and multifunctionality and use locally collected and converted waste from urban environments and soon also sea sculpture that was collected off the Kenyan coast,” said Maria Schlesinger, co -founder and CEO of Takazuri, in a statement of announcement of the announcement of the Partnership with BASF in September 2024.
BASF, one of the chemical companies that develops additive packages that are suitable for the rough weather conditions of East Africa, was involved in the development of climatile technology, in particular in process optimization, thermal stabilization and extension of the lifespan of the post-consumer recyclates. to Schlesinger.
Gabriel Chemie, one of the leading European masterbatch manufacturers, provides Takazuri a tailor-made combination piece that contains colors and stabilizers “to facilitate dispersion and homogeneity in the polymer matrix while processing the tile”.
Takazuri said that the plastics were typically stabilized against thermal and photooxidation in order to meet the stability requirements for certain processing steps, product life cycles and specific applications.
“Most stabilizers are consumed in the first product life cycle, which leads to changes in rheological and mechanical properties,” said the company.
In addition, added Takazuri, the additive stabilizers provided by BASF are of crucial importance for the stabilization of new plastics and are essential components to improve the quality of post-consumer recyclates in order to support sustainable applications such as climatiles.
In order to achieve the long lifespan of climatile technology, Takazuri said, “a new stabilization with suitable antioxidants and a suitable light tabilizer was necessary to obtain a leak-free roof solution that is also affordable for potential consumers.”
Bettina Sobotka, head of global marketing and the development for plastic additives at BASF, said that the company had developed a tailor-made additive system “in order to meet the challenges of using post-consumer recycling materials for long-term use outdoors”.
“We sincerely hope that the construction sector and the local communities in East Africa benefit from this cooperation and thereby promote economic growth,” added Sobotka.
The roof and disguise material was introduced in East Africa, where the governments of the region of the effects of emissions of energy-consuming buildings, in particular on the livelihood of more than 60 million people in the cities and urban areas of the region, are fully aware of.
PWC, a British multinational service company, said that cities in East Africa “consume a large part of the region's energy and cause more than 60 % of greenhouse gas emissions caused by the construction and use of infrastructures such as buildings and traffic, industries and production systems. “.”
“In addition, cities in East Africa are particularly at risk because they are marked by rapidly growing informal settlements that lack fundamental infrastructure and services,” said the company.
The competition is growing
But even if Takazuri feels the reaction of the market to its Climatile technology, the company should adapt to the competition because more and more actors appear who want to conquer a share in the East African market for environmentally friendly and affordable roof materials.
In Kenya, for example, the Chinese company Sinoma Roofing Systems Company Ltd, a subsidiary of the China National Building Material Group Co. Ltd. (CNBM), in Nairobi a new factory worth $ 11.5 million with an annual capacity of 2,000,000 square meters built meter-coated tiles.
The company said that “the latest technology of the automatic production line would use to ensure that production has a high standard”.
CNBM, which was founded by the merger of the China National Building Materials Group Corporation and the China National Materials Group Corporation, has already built production facilities for roofing materials in Nigeria, on the Philippines and China and is considered one of the largest manufacturers of building materials in the world .
The Chinese company said that the roof tiles in Nairobi not only have a lifespan of at least 60 years, but also withstand strong winds and the materials used could be easily recycled, which protects the environment from dirt. This would mean using sustainable and high -quality coatings for the roof material.
Wavinya Ndeti, the governor of the Machako County, one of the 47 county in Kenya and one that borders on Nairobi, where the factory is located, was cited with the words, the CNBM technology “becomes the way roofs are made , change.”
For the roof coating market in East Africa, the new year, based on the previous year, could finally be another season of growth, both with regard to performance and to improve environmental friendliness.