By Dickson Omobola

Experts in the Nigerian construction industry have revealed that some of the building defects experienced in Nigeria are caused by inefficiency, saying the country’s professionals are 75 percent below in the use of modern technology.

The stakeholders also fingered the continued introduction of new policies by various administrations as one of the challenges hindering the housing sector from growing at an accelerated level.

Speaking in Lagos at the 4th edition of Big 5 Construct Nigeria organised by DMG, Builder and Project Manager at Encon Sharon Engineering Services, Mr Enianu Eniafe, urged professionals to bridge the knowledge gap.

Eniafe said: “In our adoption of technology, even with the workforce, we are 75 percent below the scale, meaning Nigeria is far behind in adopting recent technologies. Building Information Modeling, BIM has been in existence since 2014 or before that, but up until now, we have not yet adopted it in Nigeria. And that has caused a lot of clashes during construction. A lot of reworks and more spending. If we can just harness our resources (human and technology), we will be able to scale much higher at a faster rate than other countries can imagine.”

Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary, of the Association of Housing Corporation of Nigeria, AHCN, Mr Toye Eniola, said: “The issue with the implementation is when we have new governments, they set aside the existing policies and come up with theirs. There is no continuity in the implementation of policies. This has been affecting the housing sector. Even when some of these policies deserve to continue, they come up with a new one. So, once the formal ones are put in, we start all over again. And that is why we are having a snail-like development in the sector.”

Also, Executive Vice President of DMG Events, Mr Ben Greenish, said because Nigeria’s population was predicted to double in the next 50 years, the opportunity in its construction industry was huge.

Greenish said: “The population is forecast to double in the next 50 years. If you think of urban living and how it is going to be transformed in our lifetime, I think I am right in saying 80 percent of the African population will live in cities by 2080, which is an astonishing figure. The opportunity in the Nigerian market for construction is massive.

“Equally, it’s a really important market for Nigeria because construction brings jobs, it brings education and wealth. So, you have a population of over 200 million, which is an enormous number and that’s a very youthful population. So, not only do they need buildings to go to school in, they need an industry that will employ them afterwards. I think construction on so many parts is such an important player for any country as a key driver of jobs and economic growth.”

On her part, Portfolio Director at DMG, Mehtap Gürsoy, said: “We welcomed 150 exhibitors to the show. They are here from 20 different countries from China, Austria, Turkey and Egypt. The Nigerian construction industry is growing, and it is valued at 128bn at the moment and with a growth rate of 2.4 per cent on a yearly basis. All of these statistics make the event crucial to create a platform for international companies to come into the country to create business collaboration.”