The nation’s power sector should be fixed as part of measures to push down cost of production of construction materials, the Nigerian Institution of Civil Engineers (NICE), said on Monday
This, according to the engineers, will help to accelerate the nation’s economic growth.
The Lagos State Chairman of NICE, Mr Olawale Bolarinwa made the call on Monday during the 2021 annual dinner and award night of the state chapter.
The theme for the event was ” Rising Cost of Construction Materials: What Viable Options Are Available”.
Bolarinwa said reduction in the cost of construction materials would have a multiplier effect to boost the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by five times within a space of five to 10 years.
He said most of the raw materials needed for production of cement and other construction inputs were available locally.
The chairman said the high cost of processing was responsible for the materials being expensive, thereby making some citizens settle for substandard materials.
He said that no sector could survive without the needed power for optimum production.
According to him, cost is responsible for use of inferior materials, which contributes to the rise in building collapse and construction failures.
NICE National Chairman, Dr Jang Tanko, in his speech, said that policy makers neglected professional engineers when planning major projects, and experts must rise against against the trend.
Jang called for collaboration of all the built environment professionals to end corruption and quackry in the construction industry.
He said that the Ikoyi 21-storey building collapse on Nov.1 was a disgrace to civil engineers.
“We have a lot of work, we need to defend ourselves,” Jang said.
He advised built environment professionals to continually upgrade their capacity to move with current trends.
“We should not be discouraged, let us continue to be good engineers,” he said.
Elders in the society, including Mr Femi Shittu and Mr Hamed Lawal, among others, also took turns to profer solutions to problems in the industry.
They urged more engineers to go into politics to correct wrong policies encouraging market monopoly and other errors dragging the nation backward.
Among other things, they called for revival of the Ajaokuta Steel Factory, development of transport infrastructure and training and retraining of local engineers.
Earlier, there were slide presentations on the ongoing Lekki Deep Sea Port projectnan.
