SON, ministry recommend pathways to arrest building collapse incidence

The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), which regulates materials produced or imported into Nigeria, and the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment have recommended pathways for arresting high incidence of building collapse in Nigeria.

The two organs of government said that design of structures must be done solely by qualified professionals, there must be strict adherence to certification in construction materials to be used while the law on the use of professionals at all stages of building construction should be enforced.

According to them, there must be a law to punish defaulting professionals, professional bodies, quacks, clients and investors, adding that regular integrity tests must be conducted on buildings, particularly when their intended purposes have been altered.

They called on the National Assembly to pass the National Building Code, which had been on the shelf for years, into law as part of efforts to stem building collapses, advising that the directive issued 13 years ago to evict SON from the ports in an attempt to enhance ease of doing business should be reversed.

These recommendations were contained in a communiqué issued at the end of a one-day national conference on the building/construction sector organised by the two bodies in Abuja with the theme, ‘Adherence to Standard Practices: Bedrock of Sustainable Development in the Building/Construction Sector.’

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Ifeanyi Okeke, Director General, SON, explained that the reversal of the evict directive has become necessary because SON cannot be issuing the Nigeria Conformity Assessment Program (SONCAP) certificates without being at the ports to inspect and test materials imported for the construction and other sectors.

“Rapid urbanisation and rising population have placed immense demands on every infrastructure, making the building construction industry both an opportunity and a challenge. Nigeria’s growing population requires rapid increase in affordable housing, which brings with it the challenge of meeting demand without compromising on quality,” Okeke noted.

He observed that in spite of many sensitization and awareness campaigns carried out by SON, many industry stakeholders and practitioners still lacked awareness of the standards required for safe, durable and sustainable buildings, recommending that professionals in the building sector should stay strictly within their areas of competence.

“Every stakeholder, from contractors to suppliers, and artisans must be committed to using approved materials and adhering strictly to standards,” he said, advising that collective efforts must be made to bridge knowledge gaps, particularly from the tertiary institutions level.

“SON must continue to maintain membership of the African Organisation for Standardisation and other international standardisation bodies,” he assured.