Nabaki Afrika: Tanzania’s Leading Retailer of Construction Materials

Hamish Hamilton, Executive Chairman of Nabaki Afrika, talks about the evolution of the construction sector in Tanzania since he founded his company in 1993.

“When we first arrived in Tanzania, everything was sold out of containers. They used to call them container shops and it was limited. You could hardly buy anything. So because of my construction background both in South Africa and in America, it made sense to look at importing construction materials like gypsum ceilings and the basics into Tanzania, which we started doing all those years ago. We had lessons but it gained momentum from there and we started off in a tiny little 5 by 5 meter office, me, my wife and one driver with no storage space and 23 years later we’ve got over 750 square meters of head office here and 120 personnel who work for us now. We have 4 branches and we’re busy opening another one in Dar es Salaam. We have another one in Arusha which is a big branch similar in size to our head office”, says Hamish Hamilton.