Ogbonaya Onu, minister of science and technology, has issued marching order to Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI) to immediately commence research on the use of cement for construction of Nigerian roads.
Onu, who issued the directive at the NBRRI 2016 National Conference with the theme: ‘Repositioning the Nigerian Construction Industries – Realities and possibilities,’ held in Abuja, expressed displeasure over the country’s continuous reliance on foreigners in the construction industry, 55 years after independence.
He therefore on the deployment of appropriate research efforts that will strengthen the construction and maintenance of roads with the relevant infrastructure that will meet the country’s peculiar demands and needs.
On the role of science, technology and innovation in the construction industry, Onu said: “NBRRI will effectively utilize its mandate of locally available raw materials resulting in diversifying Nigeria’s economy which will further assist in job creation, indigenous capacity building and poverty reduction.”
The minister expressed optimism that the NBRRI is working to create the suitable curriculum to help the country produce the necessary technical skills needed to finish buildings to the highest level of excellence.
“We have not sufficiently built indigenous capacity to enable us rehabilitate existing infrastructure and also to build major roads, railways, ports, power stations, refineries and many infrastructural projects.
“We have rather relied more on foreigners, such that when we built our own federal capital city, Abuja, we did so with the aim of only having befitting a capital without utilizing the opportunity to also build our indigenous capacity.”
The minister who bemoaned the prevailing situation, noted that the development has limited the capacity of competent indigenous entrepreneurs from competing with their counterparts from other parts of the world.
According to director-general of NBRRI, Danladi Matawal, the construction industry in the country contributes as low as 6 percent to the GDP, unlike its counterparts in developed nations, which contributes over 22 percent.
“However, this could be said to be complemented by the relatively higher employment of 20 percent from the over 170 million people. This is attributable to some factors as well as the high dependency of the economy on the oil sector.”
“The Federal Government is involved in project with 38.4 percent of the market, followed by state governments with 19.2 percent”, adding that the ” industry is dominated by few large expatriate firms who carry about 90 percent of the work, while indigenous firms are faced with the problem of working capital, poor management and lack of good organization,” said Matawal.
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