America-based, New Orleans Consultancy Ltd, have given Addis Prefab Houses Manufacturing Industry S.C, of Ethiopia, a 53.3 million dollar contract to construct 888 prefabricated houses, in South Sudan.

The agreement, signed on Monday, December 24, 2012, at the office of Addis Prefab, near Mebrat Hail area, at Gerji, between Fikremariyam Alemu, CEO of Addis Prefab and Yonas Tesema, general manager of New Orleans Consultancy, is part of a 450 million dollar housing contract thatNew Orleanshas with the South Sudanese government.

Yonas approached Addis Prefab with the project, leading to two-months of negotiations. Addis Prefab will deliver the houses using a Complete Knock Down (CKD) process, according to the agreement. CKD houses are houses that are pre-fabricated; they are shipped disassembled and then assembled at the other end.

New Orleans selected Addis Prefab because of the success the company had in organising itself and becoming a company in a short period of time, says Yared Gebregziabher, senior official, at Addis Prefab.

Addis Prefab is planing to build its first prefabricated houses on 30,000sqm of land, in Semit area, and 15,000sqm, in Bole Bulbula area, both obtained from real estate companies. The company has also leased 50,000sqm of land, in Sendafa area, for nine million Birr.

The company laid the corner stone on December 20, 2012 in Sendafa, to build its factory, on 50,000sqm. It will install light steel framing (LSF) technology, which it bought for 64 million Br from Genesis World, an American company.

The technology will be installed within 45 days, and production of CKD houses will begin in 60 days, according to Fikremariyam.

The houses will be ground+1 and each sit on a 100sqm plot. Each house includes; four bedrooms, a kitchen, bathroom, living room and service quarters.

New Orleans will pay the first half of the 53.3 million dollars when it receives a pro forma invoice from Addis Prefab; the rest will be paid upon delivery of the houses.

Addis Prefab has formed a project office for theSouth Sudanproject, with one project coordinator and four experts each, in charge of manufacturing, real state, construction and logistics activities.

Addis Prefab was established with 860 share holders and a capital of 39 million Br in February, 2012. It was supported in the process by Pinnacle LGC, an American company that supplies pre-fabricated technologies.