Hima Cement launches Fundi Masonry Cement

By Mabonga Darlington

As the construction industry continues to grow with various sector players coming up with new innovations and technologies that seek to address the construction sector bottlenecks, Hima cement has introduced Fundi masonry cement which is a specifically formulated cement for plastering, brick laying and mortar works.

The Hima cement country chief executive officer Jean-Michel Pons said his company was committed to providing innovative solutions for specific construction needs and that is why the new Fundi cement is an application based cement that is formulated with enhanced capabilities for masonry and plaster works and guaranteed improved workability, affordability and beautiful finishes on buildings.

He told the guests that attended the launch ceremony at their company factory premises in Namanve industrial park in Mukono district February 17^th 2021 that Fundi is a masonry cement that achieves superior work-ability making it the best solution for the quality demands of bricklaying, plaster works, and screeds both for individual home builders and large scale construction projects.

Both Philemon Mubiru and Israel Tinkasiimire head of marketing and innovation and commercial director respectively at Hima said three years ago they carried out a specific project research focusing at identifying solutions that can help overcome the problem were houses constructed end up developing cracks and peeling off both plaster and paint and emerged with Fundi which shall effectively address this challenge.

They pointed out that with the new Namanve plant coming on board to join both Kasese and Tororo plants, their production capacity of 3.5 million tons of cement annually would go up which  shall boost  their exports market  of both  South Sudan and Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

They said all the three factories of Hima have capacity to produce 2,100,000 tons of cement annually and do employ over 2,000 locals directly and indirectly.

The executive secretary national building review board [NBRB] in the ministry of works Flavia Bwire who stood in for the minister of works and transport Gen, Katumba Wamala commended Hima cement for being responsible for the manufacture of over 28% of all cement products in the country in 2019 alongside paying huge taxes to government.

Bwire said the new Fundi cement product was being launched at the right time when the construction industry is steadily progressing as more new buildings across the major towns are sprawling up every day which is an indicator that Hima is strategic in helping strengthen the specific areas of bricklaying, plastering and mortar works which are the real foundation of all the buildings.

‘Government strongly commends the efforts being made by Hima cement for coming up with new innovations that help add value to the construction industry and efforts are being made to review the entire building control Act 2013 given the changing technological developments in the entire construction sector’ noted Bwire.

Reacting to the  new product the chairman of the construction materials dealers Association [CHADA] Mutyaba Abass said  his body welcomes and appreciates the works and innovations by  Hima  and  would work with the company in ensuring that massive sensitization of the fundi’ s about the benefits of the product across the  country are achieved.