UNI STUDENTS USE CONCRETE TO PRODUCE WOOD-LIKE FURNITURE IN RWANDA

University students make groundbreaking innovation that see concrete been used to produce wood-like furniture.

Three university students has use cement to produce wood-like garden tables and chairs. It is aim to help reduce the number of trees that are obtain to make furniture. The students, Aime Jules Simbi, Tharcisse Ndahimana and Eric Nshimiyimana are from Integrated Polytechnic Regional Centre (IPRC).

The project is aim to also help contribute to Rwanda’s efforts to protect the environment. Meanwhile Rwanda is seeking to increase forest cover to 30 per cent by 2020.

The student has set-up an enterprise that will manufacture garden furniture mainly chairs and tables from cement instead of timber. They also plan to play a role in the ongoing struggle to protect the environment forests.

Aime Jules Simbi said “Through different conversations that we have as school friends, we came up with an idea to actively support government policy to increase forest cover.”

The project will help showcase that there is no need to cut down trees to find timber to assemble garden chairs. It will help reduce 0.7 per cent of the quantity of trees cut down annually in 2022 according to Simbi.

The chair are made in 12 parts that are movable separately and each part weighs 50 kg. They also use cement as well as pieces of reinforcement bars, pieces of welded mesh and metal sheets, which also ensures durability of the chairs.

According to them, it took eight months to raise Rwf320,000 as capital which the use to start a company called Reinforce Concrete Garden Furniture (RCGF) Ltd.

Simbi said that they make at least Rwf600,000 monthly from which they pay their 10 workers and taxes. They have with them a take-home of about Rwf400,000, which they consider as a collective salary.

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