Project:
Safal Investments
Country:
South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Malawi, Angola, Zambia, DRC, Rwanda and Mozambique
Sector:
Industrial infrastructure
Description:
The Safal Group is the largest manufacturer of metal roofing in sub-Saharan Africa. It currently manufactures in Kenya (Mabati Rolling Mills) and in Tanzania (Aluminium Africa). It is now expanding these plants and building a new greenfield rolling mill and galvanising plant near Durban in South Africa. The project will increase capacity by 150,000 metric tonnes.
EAIF is providing USD 15 million of senior and USD 14 million of subordinated debt to the parent company to facilitate the construction of the Durban plant and a broadening of Safal’s distribution and processing network in a number of East and Southern African countries.
The project supports EAIF’s mandate to fund manufacturing of components of infrastructure.
The roofing produced by Safal uses a state-of-the-art process that coats the steel material with both aluminium and zinc. This process produces a cheaper product because the steel is rolled to the thinnest gauges available in Africa whilst the coating is cheaper than using zinc alone to galvanise. The product also has a significantly longer life than zinc galvanised material. No other company on the continent uses this process.
Metal roofing is the product of choice for most African consumers. The provision of cheaper and longer lasting roofing has real pro-poor benefits as the biggest single customer group is small users, particularly in the agricultural sector.
