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Turnall

Business Reporter

TURNALL Holdings, one of Zimbabwe’s leading construction and building products supplier, and Harare Institute of Technology (HIT) have signed an agreement to jointly develop low-cost housing and new road building products.

Driven by the quest for affordable housing and road construction solutions in Zimbabwe, Turnall and HIT conceived the idea of bringing together the expertise and technical skills in their organisations. This culminated in the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) this week at HIT’s Belvedere complex by Turnall Holdings managing director Caleb Musodza, and HIT’s vice-chancellor Engineer Quinton Kanhukamwe.

The agreement, which will last five years, is subject to annual renewal.

Turnall will fund the initial market development work and ensure that HIT also achieves commercial value from products developed by the joint venture.

Speaking after signing the MOU Mr Musodza said, “We are delighted to be working with HIT to pool our substantial technical skills and manufacturing experience to develop low-cost housing and new road construction materials.

“Three separate teams will be created to drive the specific areas of co-operation so that implementation will be quick and the benefits realised as soon as possible.”

HIT vice-chancellor Eng Kanhukamwe also welcomed the development saying “HIT is fully behind the implementation plan and with the extensive expertise and skills at our disposal it should not be a difficult venture”.

He added that initiatives of this nature would help the country address the acute shortage of housing, helping to make the squalid conditions facing many of our people a thing of the past.

The partnership will also develop low-cost housing products largely from Turnall’s wide range of products that include fibre-cement roofing sheets, related products and concrete roofing tiles.

Turnall plans to provide quality, housing authority approved, low-cost housing solutions for residential developers, municipalities and building societies.

In addition to supplying roofing sheets, Turnall is also a major supplier of water and sewer pipes, including AC pipes, PVC, Glass Reinforced Plastic pipes and High Density Polyethene pipes, building columns, flat sheets and moulded goods.