KABANDA CHULU, Lusaka CLASSECON Roofing Africa managing director Ashok Sood has urged Zambia Bureau of Standards to urgently establish standards for pre-painted roofing steel to ensure usage of high quality materials in the country’s construction sector.

And ClassEcon has launched a lay-by account system whereby prices for its roofing materials are frozen (fixed) for a year until the customer pays the last instalment for the product to be delivered. In an interview recently, Mr Sood said Zambian consumers deserve high quality roofing and building materials that should last longer. He said the roofing materials produced by ClassEcon come with a premium price because of its high quality compared to what other companies are producing for the market. “We manufacture [roofing materials] locally but our pre-painted roofing steel coils are supplied by Arcelor Mittal of South Africa, and these are manufactured to standards, which are acceptable in the advanced countries, hence giving us an advantage over our competitors who produce low quality roofing materials. “Of course, ZABS has developed standards for galvanised [not pre-painted] roofing steel but some companies are producing low quality pre-painted materials that leak during rainy season to force people to continuously replace the roofing,” Mr Sood said. He said ClassEcon is aware that its high quality products that can last 50 years are the most expensive on the market. “It is not fair for Zambians to keep spending by replacing roofing sheets instead of utilising money on other progressive activities. This way, cheaper products are expensive in the longer term. “To enable people acquire our products, we have developed a lay-by account system where people can only produce their registration card and choose roofing material of their choice, whose price will remain fixed for a year until the last instalment is paid for them to get the materials,” Mr Sood said. Mr Sood established Safintra Roofing manufacturing company in 2007, and in 2011 he partnered with some investors from the UK to set up ClassEcon, whose products are now exported to Malawi, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The company supplies the Zambian market with 200,000 square metres of roofing materials every month that can translate to about 1,300 houses.

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