GREDA calls on gov’t to invest in laterite as price of cement gets out of control
The Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA), has charged government to invest in the production of laterite based materials to be used as an alternative to cement in the construction of buildings.
The call by the Association follows months of consistent increases in the prices of building materials in the country, especially cement and iron rods.
The prices of cement and iron rods have almost doubled since the beginning of the year.
A bag of cement for instance that was selling at around Ghs 30 in January is now selling at as much as Ghs 55 in some parts of the country.
According to GREDA, a major advantage of using laterite which is a clay-like substance instead of sand in moulding building blocks is its low cost due to the small quantity of cement and iron rods required in the building.
In an interview President of the Association, Patrick Ebo Bonful said the increasing prices of building materials will only get worse, hence government must invest in technologies that use local materials to produce building materials.
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“We have laterite and that can be used in producing bricks. These bricks are hydraulically enforced bricks which are formed using a machine called the hydraform machine and once we have that machine we can produce these bricks at a relatively cheaper cost.
“Across the country, there are laterite deposits everywhere you turn, and it reduces the cost of the building by up to 35%. It reduces the use of iron rods, it significantly reduces the use of cement, which are the two very expensive materials we use in normal construction.
“It reduces them significantly. In fact, you can build a two-story building and use just about ten percent of iron rods,” he stated.
