Minister charges builders on emerging technologies

Towards improving standards in housing delivery, the Minister of State for Power, Works and Housing, Suleiman Hassan Zarma has called on professionals in the built environment to embrace emerging technologies and materials in the industry.

He spoke at the 17th induction ceremony organised by the Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria, (CORBON)/2018 builders’ congress, in Abuja. Zarma who expressed worries on the dearth of skilled artisans and craftsmen in Nigerian housing sector, advised the association to be proactive in exploiting emerging construction technologies and recommend them to members of the profession through sensitization workshops and other continuous professional development programmes

Addressing the new builders, he stated that the induction, underscores the determination of the council to partner government in its efforts to sanitise the building industry by getting rid of quacks and enthrone the culture of professionalism.

He said government is concerned about sustainable maintenance of existing public building/assets. He also stated that the ministry is working on the final stages of enacting a public building maintenance policy.

CORBON Chairman, Prof. Bala Kabir, declared that over the years, the built environment has been deviled with poor quality project. He noted that the sad reality has often been attributed to the activities of quacks and the dearth of registered builders on building projects.

Kabir however, said CORBON has registered and licensed professionals to practice the building technology profession in the country in order to avert further crisis in the sector.

He disclosed that the inductees have met CORBON’s basic requirement for registration and licensing, gone through training and industry tutelage and succeed at professional examinations, hence the council found them qualified.

In a keynote address delivered by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Femi Falana and titled, “Executive Order No. 5 on standardisation and innovative technologies for the growth and development of the Nigerian economy”, he said while Executive Order 5 may be said to have laid the foundation for the gradual takeoff of the envisioned standardisation and innovative technologies, which engender capacity utilisation and development, the government has not made adequate provision for the development of science and technology.

According to him, “apart from encouraging the teaching of science and technology in all schools the federal, state and local governments should promote and support research with substantial funding on a regular basis. In view of the growing culture of official impunity in the country the Executive Order ought to be amended to provide sanctions for public officers who may contrive its provisions”.

Falana said, “To ensure the overall development of the country with respect to the planning and execution of projects and promotion of Nigerian content in science and technology it is high time that all the state governments adopted the Public Procurement Act together with Executive Order No 5 of 2018. In the alternative, the President should liaise with the leadership of the national assembly with a view to having the Executive Order passed into law. I am confident that the national assembly will not hesitate to pass the bill having regards to the huge benefits which the nation stands to derive from the legislation”.