Hamza Atta is Managing Director of Polystyrene Industries Ltd, a company that has been delivering building materials made of polystyrene to builders across Nigeria for 17 years. Speaking with Viewpoint Housing News in Abuja, Atta said developers who work with him can save cost and produce faster. He said he would have revolutionised the building industry if not for Nigeria’s huge infrastructure deficit…
Viewpoint: One of the problems militating against housing development in Nigeria is lack of relevant technology. With what you do here, can it be said that we’re on a journey to putting an end to the problem?
Atta: Basically, we’re a systems building company. Unfortunately, We also face the kind of problems we have in Nigeria where getting our raw materials is an issue. Polystyrene is a by product of the petrochemical industry. But we have to import it from Europe and the far east.
And the galvanised wire which we also use on our load bearing walls is a material that we could have been procuring from Ajaokuta steel rolling mills. Unfortunately, we have to import it from Europe.
Already, you can see that I have increased costs because of lack of infrastructure in Nigeria. When I bring it into the country, I have to pay duty on it. And I bring it into my plant, I have to produce it with a [power] generator. The cost of running that generator is such that things aren’t affordable as they could have been, if for instance, the industrial area had been powered.
Having said that, the material has add on value: it’s light, it’s strong and it’s heat and sound insulating. Each of these elements I’ve mentioned gives it an advantage. For the decorations for instance, it means that, like a window detail for instance that you normally cast with concrete, it’s heavy on the wall, it’s cumbersome to make and it can fall off over time. Mine material works very well with cement, very light so it’s there for ever.
The panels for the walls are much lighter than block work. So you make savings from your foundation, you make savings on your walls and the insulation saves you in terms of the heating or the cooling of the building. In Nigeria, it’s a cooling issue. The mean temperature inside a polystyrene house is 20 degrees celsius.
The galvanised wire isn’t wire that rusts because our panels are load bearing so you don’t have to go casting columns, making homework for casting those columns – buying extra iron work for casting those columns and also extra wood and iron for casting the lintel. My building negates the use of any lintels.
And then sound. There’s a lot of noise pollution these days and inside my buildings, it’s very quite. So if you have an aluminium roof for instance, and you use polystyrene decking or you use a polystyrene suspended ceiling, you’ll not hear the rain.
Viewpoint: How well is this polystyrene system known in Nigeria, how long have you used it?
Atta: Well, polystyrene has been used all over the world. If you’ve ever been inside an aeroplane, that means that you’ve been inside polystyrene, because it’s a very light material. If you have ever bought anything packaged, being it your fridge, AC, fax machine, computer, you’ll notice the white foam that was used to package it is polystyrene because of its good shock absorbent qualities.
We use fire retardant materials for the building industry. We’re still letting Nigerians to know that we’re here. I hear people importing it every day for one thing or the other. Advertising is a big issue – as you know, advertising in Nigeria is so costly.
Viewpoint: Could you enumerate some of the projects that you have got executed with your product?
Atta: We did all of the expansion of the Obudu Cattle Ranch. We did the presidential villa, the guest villas and all the service quarters in Cross River State. We also used it for the roof of the banquet hall…in Cross River State. We built multi-storey blocks of flats all over Lagos and Abuja. That Shashalinga Court you see next to Next in Abuja is all our floor. The CCECC uses our materials in all the airport buildings for light way concrete, multi-storey car parks, many of the estates in Abuja use polystyrene housing.
Yea, we also supply materials to Ghana, Chad, Niger and we’re having enquiries recently from Cameroun.
Viewepoint: Can it be applied in low cost housing projects?
Atta: Yes. The beauty of it is that…that’s the reason why we set up…in the first place. It’s light, quick, precise and it’s very very strong. Yes, we have our main target…affordable housing.
The issue is the cost of land here and the cost of infrastructure. That’s another story.
Viewpoint: So relatively, if I’m to use this material to do, say a two-bedroom house, what is the percentage savings do you think I can make?
Atta: Well, it depends on standards. I think the biggest issue we have in Nigeria is there are no standards. So I can be a bricklayer, making blocks by the roadside, and putting any amount of sand into the block such that it crumbles in my hands.
But if you’re doing quality building with quality standard materials, you can probably make about 20 percent savings in cost of the structure and build in half of the time.
Viewpoint: We have an agency that works towards new technologies like this. Have you heard about the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI)?
Atta: Yes.
Viewpoint: Have you had any interface with that institute?
Atta: No. I’ve not.
Viewpoint: All this long you work without government’s support?
Atta: I’m just a believer in the product selling itself. I’m a believer in the private sector. I understand when government talks about Direct Foreign Investment which is what we have here. But I’m not one thinking that government is the answer to everything. So private sector is there. We’ve been running out for 17 years and we run fully based on the private sector.
We’re growing. And now we’re moving into fast food packaging and agricultural packaging. These have been achieved through deals with the private sector.
Viewpoint: Considering what you have, if you were to address developers today, what will you say regarding better construction works, cost saving?
Atta: The biggest problem on Nigeria is it’s a very difficult working environment where the client is king and the client is always right. What we’re doing is based on planning. It’s not when you need the blocks that you come and look for the panels or the floor slabs. You have to ab initio think about how to value-engineer my building so from the foundation you make savings. The walls, the decorations, the floor slabs, you have to plan.
What our developers are stuck with is old traditional way, always doing this. You go to Dubai this week, there’s no building. You go next week, there’s a multi-storey building standing. Why? Because they’re planning and using all these new building materials to be able to deliver faster, better buildings than what they had been traditionally used to. We seem to be stuck in time. We seem to be stuck in a place.
The product we’re selling is complete – it’s not just the panel, or just the floor, just the wall, or just the window detail, or just column cladding. So if you want to maximise it, you have to come to us from the beginning before your engineers start work on the structure, before your architects start designing the building because the product comes in particular sizes. I can make the size more efficient with my production than if an architect designs without me in mind.
The idea is for us to be able to save you money. If you’re not working with us from the beginning, it makes that quite difficult for us.
