Association Advises FG On Construction Industry Board

The  Commonwealth As
sociation of Surveying and Land Economy (CASLE),  recently urged the Federal Government to establish a construction industry board to check the use of substandard building materials in Nigeria.
The association’s President, Mr Olusegun Ajanlekoko,  journalists in Lagos, that the step would also streamline the day-to-day activities of practitioners in the industry.
CASLE is an umbrella body for all surveying professionals in the 54 Commonwealth countries.
Ajanlekoko, a former president of the Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria (APBN), said that the board was necessary to regulate and supervise construction and to also advise government.
“The construction industry performance is a source of worry in this country; we have more or less government not paying close attention to the operators or the performance within the industry.
“And it is important, because the construction industry adds to the GDP of any nation and if that sector is that important, then you must pay more attention to it.
“We have quite a lot of shoddy inferior materials being brought in but there is no control.
“The so called Standards Organisation of Nigeria is a general organisation that is not specialised to one aspect of our national economy.
“If we have a sub-sector that has to do with physical environment, like they do in the most developed countries, maybe perhaps our lot would be different in the industry.
“Today what you have is that quite a lot of inferior stuffs are coming from China, so we don’t have standard, Nigeria has become a dumping ground and it’s a source of worry for professionals and those who are stakeholders.
“We cannot allow it to continue,  so there is supposed to be a trade board that would synthesise, sieve and ensure that what we are getting into this country is of the right order“.
The president said that about 80 per cent of construction materials were usually imported into the country.
Ajanlekoko decried that local manufacturers were not being encouraged to manufacture, due to harsh government policies that had made the business unattractive.