Minister Advocates synergy in the construction industry

“The Minister of Water Resources, Mr Suleiman Adamu has called for synergy amongst research institutes, policy makers and professional bodies in the construction industry to tackle housing challenges in the country.”- The Tide

Adamu made call while speaking with newsmen Abuja, on the sideline of the 28th Archibuilt Exhibition and Conference on building materials.
The exhibition and conference is organised by the Archibuilt Development Services Ltd (ADSL), in collaboration with the Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA).
“There is need for more vigorous collaboration between the academia, professional bodies and research institutes to feed the industry through innovations.
“If you go to the universities, you will see exhibitions made by young Engineers and Architects but they do not get carried into the industry for production chain to be used by the society at large”, he said.
The minister observed that getting those innovations developed, adopted and used had been a problem, saying that, work is needed to be done for this to be changed.
Speaking on the local content policy, he said that Nigeria had all the resources including clay, sand, stone, timber among others, needed in building to achieve her housing purposes.
“There is nothing we don’t have, we just have to process it and put it to use then improve on the usage and quality. If we do that, we will save lot money on importation, he said.
Adamu recalled that recently the Federal Executive Council came up with local content policy to be anchored by the Ministry of Science and Technology, but expressed worry that Nigeria over the years had relied on imported materials.
On water, he noted that 60 to 70 per cent of the components required to set up water supply scheme were imported.
“They are so expensive, but we need this water seriously and it is becoming not affordable for many states and local governments that have the responsibility to develop the water infrastructure.
“The idea of looking inward is very crucial for us to find a way to get and use local materials that are affordable otherwise we will continue to have these serious challenges.
“Presently, in the water sector, we have moved from 30 per cent of the population being supplied with pipe borne water in1990 down to seven per cent today.
“Because states and federal government cannot invest much in repairing infrastructure, we have to import and naira has been skyrocketing.
“Prior to that we were boosting the best scheme in the whole country including Kano, Kaduna, Lagos among others.
Presenting a keynote address, Dr Idris Omede, President, Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria (APBN), urged the government to provide enabling policies and soft loans for local manufactures to invest on.
Omede urged the exhibition organiser to ensure that its purpose of stimulating patronage of Nigerian products was fulfilled.
“Increase in population has placed a high demand on raw materials for construction giving rise to the need to consider sustainability.
“There is need to explore standardization and innovative materials that can promote flexibility, ” he said.
The ongoing exhibition and conference, scheduled for Aug. 21 to Aug. 24, 2017 has the theme: “Promoting the Development of Building Materials and Services for Nigeria Market” (NAN)

Source: The Tide