By Jude Njoku

… As BPP unveils plans to enforce new policy
The Construction industry is generally regarded as the barometer for measuring the health of any nation’s economy. When a nation’s construction industry is booming, the economy of that country is believed to be thriving while the reverse is the case when the construction sector is going through a downturn.

The Nigerian construction industry since the attainment of independence over 50 years ago, has been dominated by expatriate construction companies and those which wear the garb of indigenous construction companies simply because they have appointed a few Nigerians into their Board of Directors.

Apparently pissed by this ugly development, Nigerian Engineers and other built environment experts and stakeholders have been waging unfruitful battles to redress the trend. The arguments often advanced by the government at the Federal and State levels for preferring foreign contractors, include: alleged incompetence of local contractors, some of who mismanage funds collected for projects and the inability of indigenous firms to buy the construction equipments required to execute most heavy construction and engineering projects, among many others.

It was therefore a cheery news when the Federal Government last week announced that from 2013, all engineering and construction projects below N5 billion will be handled by Nigerian contractors who possess the  requisite capability.

Works Minister, Mr. Mike  Onolememen, an Architect, who disclosed this at the just-concluded 45th National Engineering Conference put together by the Nigerian Society of Engineers, NSE, stated the gesture is aimed at protecting indigenous entrepreneurs and promoting local content in the construction sector. He further disclosed that all contractors handling major projects in his ministry had been directed to employ Nigerian engineering personnel.

The policy, Onolememen said, is “a deliberate effort by the Federal Government to help build local capacity and promote local content in the industry.. It is also aimed at reversing the domination of the Nigerian engineering and construction industry by expatriates.”

The Minister who noted that over 80 per cent of the capital budget of all tiers of government in Nigeria is expended in the construction and engineering industry regretted that  in spite of the enormous opportunities that abound in this sector, the construction and engineering industry is still being dominated by foreign contractors.

“Substantial part of the major construction and engineering projects in Nigeria is executed by expatriates, thereby creating a huge capital flight. This obviously should not be the case. No nation can develop solely by relying on the expertise of foreign nationals. Indigenous technology must therefore be developed, especially in construction and complex engineering projects. Continued reliance on imported technologies and professionals to build most of Nigeria’s infrastructure such as roads, power, energy, water supply and transportation is simply not sustainable in the long run,” he said.

In a similar vein, the Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP, says it will enforce the new policy from January, 2013. The Director-General of BPP, Engr. Emeka Eze, told Vanguard Homes & Property, weekend, that the agency will enforce the implementation of the policy through a categorization and classification module that would be deployed from next month.

Engr Eze, a former President of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, allayed fears that foreign companies who pose as indigenous firms because they have Nigerian directors, will benefit from the new policy.

According to him, “indigenous companies are those which are owned 100 percent by Nigerians”.

Vanguard Homes & Property observes that the Works Minister was merely reechoing the statement credited to President Goodluck Jonathan a few months ago when he received in audience, the NSE President, Engr. Mustafa Balarabe Shehu.

The President had stated that as a matter of deliberate policy, his government is prepared to give jobs to local manufacturers and contractors even if their quotations are 10 to 15 per cent higher than those of expatriates. He said government would use such contractors, especially for jobs that relate to the attainment of Vision 2020.

According to him, the Government decided to encourage  local contractors because it realised that foreigners would not be able to develop the country more than Nigerians.

It would be recalled that the Ibrahim Babangida-led military government in 1991, came up with a National Construction Policy which sought to accord more visibility and patronage to indigenous construction industry experts.