Building Materials In Excess

The availability of building equipment such as sand, stones and locally transformed products make construction of houses easy in the country

Building a house in Cameroon is no longer a nightmare like before or in other countries where an individual may need to import all basic materials needed to construct. The country is well positioned with an abundance of available materials combined with a well-trained workforce in all construction trades, from plumbers to engineers and architects. Today, Cameroon hosts a number of local facilities for the production of basic products like concrete, iron, stone for construction or decoration and timber for framing and other structures. Government’s efforts to promote the use of local materials through the Mission for the Promotion of Local Materials (MIPROMALO) have also widened the accessibility to locally produced building materials at affordable cost.
MIPROMALO’s operations have always geared towards disseminating and promoting results of research aimed at finding solutions to housing problems. The institution promotes the construction of houses in the country with local products such as compressed earth blocks, tiles and baked bricks as well as ceramics and pottery. The price of bricks varies between FCFA 80 to 120. At MIPROMALO, there is a semi-industrial plant used in the production of cooked bricks which is also another locally made product for construction. A source at MIPROMALO reveals that when such materials are used in building, one does not need to paint the house. This becomes more economical.
For those who do not want to use locally made products, different varieties of sand and stone are also available in all the ten regions of the country. The prices of sand differ slightly depend on the season or the variety (fine or coarse, etc). The local cement market is fuelled mai...