Rinchi
TechInAfrica – Owning a house in Kenya means you have to deal with a series of bureaucracies and unpredicted obstacles from here and there. Even in most cases, the nature of the contracting and building market is unfriendly to those who want the process works easier and more convenient for them. This problem has motivated a multinational corporation that specialized in construction, iBuild, to offer more convenient and friendly services in building and purchasing a house. Through its services that first launched in Kenya two years ago, clients will be able to customize their house that fits their tastes.
Aggrey Wangwe, Marketing Director for iBuild Kenya, said that they provide a better alternative for those who are struggling with finding a suitable house.
“Kenyans hardly involve experts when developing property. They love running the projects themselves, include as many customizations as they can,” said Wangwe.
The company has recently launched its app on Play Store to target Android users in the country. The app basically functions to coordinate development processes and value-chain actors, such as homeowners, architects, construction workers and contractors, and so on. As for homeowners, they are able to make financial arrangements and commitments as well as an exact amount of a whole project.
After being launched on January 25th this year, iBuild app has created over 300 projects and more than 200 bids.
The app requires contractors who sign up for the service to be verified by the National Construction Authority (NCA) before they are allowed to post their profiles and jobs. As for construction workers, they are given access to post jobs and partake on construction projects created on the app.
iBuild app provides Digital Wallet in their payment method. This system eliminates third-party involvement and delayed compensations. The payment method is powered by M-PESA and the company is currently in the process to integrate more additional payment methods involving banks for larger payments. One thing should be noted is that the funds are held by the service provider (M-PESA) not iBuild.
