Lafarge meets with other Stakeholders on Building Collapse

Lafarge Meets with other Stakeholders to Address Spate of Building Collapse in the Country

Building construction experts from Lafarge Africa Plc, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria and other stakeholders in the Housing construction industry say the engagement of non-professionals and artisans in the construction of buildings is largely responsible for the spate of collapsed buildings in the county.

They were speaking at a stakeholder’s forum organised by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), for the North Central zone held in Abuja. The Technical Services Manager of Lafarge Africa Plc Engr Bukola Adebisi said such artisans and non-professionals lack the training and expertise to execute building projects without supervision.  He said this was why the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) recently partnered with stakeholders including Lafarge Africa Plc to produce a Concrete Mix Manual that will serve as a guide the production of concrete in the country. The Concreted Mix Manual is the first of its kind in Nigeria’s construction industry.

On his part Head of Product Authentication at the Standards Organisations of Nigeria Usman Mohammed who stood in for the SON Director General said the use of sub-standard building materials is another major cause of building collapse in the country. He called on stakeholders to in the Building and Construction sector to work together to completely eradicate sub-standard products in the industry.

In a bid to ensure that only qualified building Engineers work on construction projects in the country, the Council for the Regulation of Engineers in Nigeria (COREN) has set up an Engineering Regulation and Monitoring Council. The Registrar of COREN, Kamila Maliki who made this known also disclosed that 5 engineers involved in the 27 buildings that have collapsed in the country between 2016 and 2017 have been sanctioned by COREN.