NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 19 – Bamburi Cement has introduced a new variant of cement, at a time when it is recovering from reduced profitability registered in the last financial year.
The cement maker’s Chief Executive Sediqq Hassani says the product, dubbed Fundi Cement, has enhanced capabilities for masonry and plaster works.
“This product will meet some of our customer needs and more importantly at a more affordable cost for masonry and plaster works,” said Hassani.
Hassani said the cement, which will retail at Sh540 in Nairobi and Sh600 in Mombasa, can be used in brick and block laying, plastering, rendering, screed and repair works.
The company’s operating profits reduced by Sh900 million in the sixth months to December 2019, on account of loss of sales in Rwanda, higher energy and logistics costs and capacity expansion in Kenya and Uganda.
The launch comes at a time when financial experts are predicting a pickup in real estate sector activity, following years of slow down owing to a depressed economy and constraints on debt lending to developers.
Hassani said some of the factors that has affected the sectors’ performance in the past three years are related to incomplete projects, political pressure witnessed in electioneering period among others.
“ 2017 was the year of election and it had an impact on the construction sector and last year we saw big projects such as SGR, the highway between Mombasa and Nairobi projects that were stopped which continues to affect the results of the construction sector.”
President Uhuru Kenyatta’s housing pillar under the Big 4 agenda is expected to boost activity in the sector, as he tries to fulfill his promise of 500,000 houses by 2022.
