Lafarge affordable, mass housing model raises hope for New Makun City
Hope in the New Makun City being promoted by Ogun State Property Investment Corporation (OPIC) was taken to a new high when 10 units of three-bedroom bungalows built by Lafarge Africa Plc were commissioned by Ibikunle Amosun, the state governor.
The 10 housing units built as prototypes of what to expect in the new city are products of Aluminum Shuttering—a new building technology developed by Lafarge as a response to Nigeria’s well over 17 million housing units deficit.
The New Makun City located along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway near the Sagamu interchange and sitting on a Greenfield site covering an expanse of 750 hectares (7.5sq km) is designed to be a catalytic hub for enhancing the tourism, industrial and commercial base of Ogun State.
The city which is about 49.5km from Ikeja in Lagos, 62km to governor’s office in Abeokuta, and 26.5km drive from Sagamu is at a key cross-point for easy access to the southern and northern part of Nigeria and vividly illustrates the key advantages of Ogun State as the gateway state.
“Where you are right now is the project site that belongs to OPIC which invited us last December to construct 10 homes for them. The mandate given to us was to build homes of good quality and of right specifications to be delivered in four weeks”, Jumoke Adegunle, Head, Affordable Housing and Buildings, disclosed to journalists at the commissioning event.
Adegunle explained that what they had delivered were concrete structures and the roofs, adding that they did the construction in partnership with Tye-Wall Contractors Limited while OPIC that did the finishing—putting the doors, windows, painting, etc.
She revealed OPIC was a key customer to us and that they were walking in partnership with them. “What we bring to the table is our expertise on concrete mix, aggregate, cement, design and building. We have a close relationship with the state government. We work for them. It took us five days to do the carcass of each of these buildings comprising three-bedroom bungalows, all rooms ensuite”, she said.
Loren Zanin, CEO, Aggregates and Concrete at Lafarge, explained that their new building method was the best for mass housing “because it is cheaper, smoother, stronger and more durable; if you build the traditional way, it costs much to do the rendering (plastering), but here you don’t need much rendering because the concrete walls are smooth; you need just 1-2 milimetre rendering; so, you need less materials, you build quicker and avoid wastes. All these reduce both time and cost”.
Continuing, the CEO said, “what we have going for us is speed. Next to us here is a building site which started before us; we have finished but they are still at foundation level. Our speed of execution brings down construction cost. We can build our houses much cheaper than the traditional block work”.
Adegunle stressed that with their method, a three-bedroom bungalow is delivered 17 days while doing it the normal way would take about 25 days which gives about 18 percent faster than the conventional method of building with bricks and mortar.
“Our method is therefore, faster, more efficient and cost effective; what we are doing is that we are leveraging technology and with it you can move faster and more efficiently, and when you do this, price will definitely come down at the end of the day, leading to the affordability of the houses”, she assured.
CHUKA UROKO