The Nation Newspaper

Category: Building & Properties

  • UNILAG to host conference on land development

    AN international conference on land and development is to be hosted by the University of Lagos (UNILAG) from October 24-26.

    It is being coordinated by the varsity’s Research and Innovation Office and the Centre for Housing and Sustainable Development.

    In a statement, the institution said the theme of the conference is: “Land and development in Lagos.”  The sub-themes would include land tenure system; land valuation; land use historical, political and social evolution; land development; spatial data infrastructure and land administration; and land management policy and advocacy.

    The institution said in a statement that the closing date for the submission of abstracts has been extended to the end of the month. Also, it noted that there would be exhibitions on the side by interested practitioners and stakeholders in the land use and development value chain, including proprietors of land for sale, housing estate developers, housing plan and mortgage scheme providers, rent-to-own schemes, land reclamation and dredging companies, industrial and mixed use land developers as well as surveyors and valuers.

    “The Governor of Lagos State has been invited as the special guest of honour, while Senator GbengaAshafa will be the guest of honour. The keynote speakers include a former Surveyor-General of Nigeria, Professor P. C. Nwilo; the Chairman of the Presidential Technical Committee on Land Reforms, Prof Peter Adeniyi; and Lead Land Administration Specialist of the World Bank, Dr Mika-PetteriTorhonem.”

    It added that the conference was expected to attract scholars from all over the world because of the diverse interests in land, would have Prof Rufus Akinyele and Prof Wellington Oyibo as the chairmen of the local organising committee, and would assist the government in formulating appropriate land policies.

  • ‘How monotechnics are changing EHW quality’

    The Registrar, Environmental Health Officers Registration Council of Nigeria (EHORECON), Dr. Dominic Abonyi, has said 70 percent of the nation’s environmental health workers graduated from monotechnics.

    He spoke at the unveiling of Environmental Health National Diploma (ND) and Higher National Diploma (HND) Curricula Review, in Abuja.

    Abonyi further said some of the health colleges and schools of health technology are challenged with poor manpower and infrastructure, thereby making it difficult to provide acceptable knowledge transfer to students of environmental health in the country.

    This, he said, has led to the churning out of unqualified environmental health practitioners from the schools. For these reasons, Abonyi explained, the Council decided to intervene by constructing training models in selected schools in the six geopolitical zones.

    According to him, the Council had to seek support of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) to review ND and HND curricula of the programme to meet current national standards applicable in sub-professional cadres being regulated by the NBTE.

    “At present, 70 per cent of environmental health workforce is produced at colleges and schools of health technology nationwide. We are very conscious of the deplorable state of some of these schools in terms of manpower and infrastructure, with the attendant low capacity in the upcoming practitioners being turned out. We now have curricula that will align environmental health technologists with their contemporaries in other professions in Nigeria,” he said.

    The Minister for the Environment, Ibrahim Jibril, emphasised the importance of the sanitary inspection officers, stressing their role to promoting public health.

    Jibril explained that following complaints on low capacity of the officers, the ministry provided supports for the development of a benchmark for Bachelor of Environmental Health Science and mounting of the programme in some pilot Universities including provision of training equipment to ensure accreditation by relevant bodies.

    The minister, represented by the ministry’s Acting Permanent Secretary (PS), Dr. Abisola Obisesan, applauded the NBTE for promoting environmental health training to the same level with its contemporaries in the country.

    “With these new curricula you are getting today, we have every confidence that you will complement the effort of the Council to providing quality health manpower to support government effort at addressing the ever increasing environmental health challenges in Nigeria,” he said, adding that only colleges and schools of health that are ready to turn out quality manpower in environmental health will be granted accreditation.

    He called for stakeholders support from the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) including the academia to support ongoing efforts to developing environmental health profession.

  • Zamfara plants 24,000 trees

    THE Zamfara State Government has planted 24,000 trees in some of its local government areas as part of a campaign against desertification across the state.

    Special Adviser to the  governor on Directorate of Afforestation, Malam Mansur Khalifa-Kaura, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Gusau.

    Khalifa-Kaura said the campaign was part of the government‘s commitment to fight desert encroachment and other environmental challenges in the state.

    “In the first phase, we planted 14,000 trees across the state, 1,000 trees were planted in one-kilometre distance in each of the 14 local government, which cost the state government N10 million.

    “In the second phase, we planted 10,000 trees in six selected local government areas in the state, in each of the selected LGAs we planted over 1,600 trees in two kilometres distance along the road side”

    “This phase also cost the state another N10 million, making a total of N20 million for the whole projects,” he said.

    He listed the six selected local government areas to include Bakura, Birnin-Magaji, Talata-Mafara, Shinkafi, Kaura-Namoda and Zurmi.

    According to him, apart from combating desertification, the trees would also help in beautifying the environment. The state government, he added, would ensure the trees are protected.

    He advised the people against indiscriminate tree falling to stop desertification and erosion challenges.

    He, however, appealed to people of the state to assist the state government in the maintenance and protection of the trees.

  • Desist from illegal waste collection, operators warned

    The Lagos State Government has warned Waste Collection Operators (WCOs) to stop illegal waste collection or face sanctions.

    Commissioner for the Environment, Mr. BabatundeDurosinmi-Etti, gave the warning during an interactive session with  the WCOS, Community Development Council and the local government officials in Alimosho Local Government Secretariat.

    He said no WCO is allowed to work in isolation without being monitored or have their activities properly documented.

    He decried a situation in which only two operators in Alimosho Local Government signed up with Visionscape for residential waste collection, adding that such cooperating operators were assigned certain number of trips which were being paid for by the government through Visionscape, which is the concessionaire for residential waste collection.

    The commissioner said WCOs assigned to cover commercial premises were mandated to obtain the Client Operator Contractor Agreement (COCA) form before venturing into commercial waste collection and warned that any WCO found covering unallocated street or commercial premises would be decertified and their license revoked.

    The commissioner reiterated that for any WCO to be assigned as an operator, the WCO must have a registered company and two compactors that are in good condition.

    He added that the aim of the interaction with the people at the grassroots was to encourage mutual appreciation of the existing gaps and to arrive at workable solutions, stressing that government would continue to do everything possible to achieve a cleaner environment, including prompting Visionscape to add trips for WCOs where necessary.

    He urged stakeholders to be clear on their roles in the sanitation and protection of the environment and be prepared to spur other members of the community into positive actions towards the environment.

  • Housing: Stakeholders push for new law

    The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), has said over N60 trillion is required to address the country’s 17 million housing deficit.

    Malami disclosed this in his keynote address at the just-concluded workshop on the Model Mortgage and Foreclosure Draft Bill, at the Rockview Hotel Royale, Abuja.

    The theme of the workshop was: “Creating an enabling environment for the growth of the housing and mortgage Sector: The need for land and law reform”.

    Malami, represented by Mr. Biodun Aikhomu at the three-day workshop, further said more than 80 per cent of the nation’s population lived in informal housing arrangements.

    According to him, the constraints to housing sector development   included the difficulty in securing governor’s consent; poverty and affordability gap; slow adjudication and bureaucratic processes involved in housing registration and perfection of title. He, therefore, advocated reforms that would foster short, medium and long term solutions to these challenges.

    The AGF said the provision of housing is one of the objectives of the Economic Growth and Recovery Plan (EGRP) instituted by the Federal Government. He said the Nigeria Housing Finance Programme, which is being co-ordinated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and supported by the World Bank, is playing key role in the scheme.

    With this submission, Malami set the tone for various paper presentations, culminating in the issuance of a communique by participants.

    It was, therefore, instructive when stakeholders at the end of the workshop spoke with one voice on their position regarding the Model Mortgage and Foreclosure Draft Bill. One of this was the call for each state  to draw a road map for the passage and implementation of the Model Mortgage and Foreclosure Law (MMFL).

    In doing this, the states are to bear in mind the three pillars of the model – regulatory framework; collateral registry and education and public awareness. This process, they argued, should be fast-tracked as soon as possible to avoid the distraction of electioneering process that may arise later in the year. This position formed the fulcrum of the communique issued at the end of the deliberation.

    As part of the communique, participants were unanimous that there was need for the existence of the  political will across all tiers and levels of government, to pass the “Model law” as well as address other land administration challenges in the housing and mortgage sector.

    It further noted that there is need for governors to take ownership of the process of passage and implementation of the MMFL; noting also that there is need for increased collaboration among stakeholders (executive; legislature; judiciary; operators and regulators) for effective policy formulation and legislation to engender housing and mortgage reform.

    Other recommendations include the passage of the MMFL and resolution of other land administrative issues to be escalated to influential fora such as the National Economic Council; Nigeria Governors’ Forum and the Attorney Generals’ Forum. It also stressed the need to automate land registries and land titling processes in all states for better co-ordination of activities and information sharing in the industry; need for interface between the Land Registry and Mortgage Registry in states where these registries are separate; need for state governments to see discounts/reduction of statutory fees and rates as incentives to increase internally generated revenue (IGR) as well as broaden the revenue collection base of the state, thus making the MMFL an incentive to the states.

    It was further submitted that there is need to consider the financial implication of the legal framework being proposed by the MMFL and the possibility of adopting existing structures to minimise cost and serve as an incentive, rather than a dis-incentive to the passage of the law; need to address potential conflict of interest between the proposed state Mortgage Board and the existing Land Registry/Authority.

    It stressed the need for operators to be realistic in their projections/models in determining the types of houses built in states and fixing unit prices of such houses to suit the various states and income/salary scale of housing beneficiaries and mortgage schemes, bearing in mind the housing/mortgage policy that not more than 33 per cent of a beneficiary’s income should be used to service a housing loan/mortgage; need to simplify and modify mortgage creation to meet modern trends and exigencies of the housing and mortgage industry.

    Others include the need to expedite the process for obtaining governor’s consent (by delegating the authority to more than one person) in respect of secured transactions or reassess/streamline the process to eliminate the delay in obtaining such consent so that transactions involving real property would be easier and more seamless; and also the need for states to provide the necessary infrastructure and social amenities (i.e. motorable roads; electricity supply; pipe borne water etc.) to make housing estates attractive to Investors; developers and potential homeowners.

  • Nigeria’s first steel, concrete building ready soon

    A Building construction firm, ITB Nigeria Limited, has said it is set to complete its first steel and concrete building project, the Azuri Peninsula, in the Eko Atlantic City, Lagos State.

    The Azuri Peninsula project, which began in early 2015, is a unique steel and concrete residential building project, consisting three sets of over 30 floors.

    Steel and concrete structures involve a mix of steel and concrete to form a single element. The advantage of using this technology gives rise to benefits like speed, performance and value. Additionally, concrete encasement protects the steel from buckling, corrosion and fire. The building offers a collection of four-bedroom luxury and super luxury apartments; two and four-bedroom town houses, known as ‘Marina,’ as well as six-bedroom penthouses.

    ITB Nigeria Quality Assurance / Quality Control Co-ordinator,  Emmanuel Adeyemi, expressed satisfaction with the project, which he said is the very first of such by his firm. For him, the project is a testimony to the quality of work being undertaken by the firm “We are excited about this project because it’s our first composite structure created by a combination of steel and concrete to form a single element. This helps to deliver performance that is more effective than when individual components are used together but not unified,” he said.

    He added that the firm is fully focused on understanding its clients needs and delivering on its promises, regardless of the scale or complexity of the challenge at hand.

    Adeyemi explained that the uniqueness of composite structures is that it enhances construction time, performance and value. This is because steel framing for a structure can be erected quickly and the pre-fabricated steel floor decks can be put in place immediately. When cured, he further revealed, the concrete provides additional stiffness to the structure, making the structure one that can stand the test of time.

    ITB Nigeria is the major building civil engineering contracting firm handling some of the infrastructural projects being carried out in Eko Atlantic city.

  • Firm holds safety awareness

    Experts have revealed that the ratio of serious accidents to near misses in the work environment is estimated at one to 300 at-risk behaviours.

    They spoke at the recently- concluded workshop on health, safety and environment organised by Oil Servicing firm, Eunisell Limited, at its Lagos Office,

    At-risk behaviour, according to them, are activities or work-related environmental issues that fail to meet or bypass best practices, safety programmes and training procedures.

    EuniselL Group Managing Director, Mr. Chika Ikenga, said: “At Eunisell, safety and the environment are our primary concerns, thus we take the well being of our team, customers and vendors very seriously. While working on projects, we are duty-bound and committed to implementing our Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) policy as well as meeting the rigorous standards set by our customers.”

    “We want our business and operations to be as risk-free as much as possible and our impact on the environment to be minimal. Our approach is proactive and this is why our Health, Safety and Environment policy evolves and is adaptive to meet the unique needs of each project without comprise,” he added.

     

  • BCPG seeks better craftsmen

    Members of Building Collapse Prevention Guild (BCPG), Ikorodu Cell, Lagos, have urged stakeholders in the local construction industry to promote the use of competent craftsmen to reduce the spate of unsatisfactory works in building production across the country.

    The call was made at a seminar organised by the built environment professionals living or working in Ikorodu.

    The seminar was themed: “Profiling craftsmen competency in the Nigerian construction industry.”

    The guest speaker, a Department of Building Technology lecturer, Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu, Salisu Harfiz, lamented that the  academic system has failed to pay adequate attention to handicraft training, a situation, which  he said has led to graduation of half-baked craftsmen, which has led to competency challenges for the industry.

    To overcome this inadequacy, Harfiz, who is also the Second Vice- President, of the Nigerian Association of Engineering Craftsmen (NAEC), advocated an increase in the provision of modern technological training, including modern day tools and equipment in technical colleges and construction – skills- acquisition centres across the country.

    He, therefore, appealed to the Nigerian Board for Technical Education to sustain the newly introduced National Skills Qualifications Framework, which is aimed at assessing and upgrading the competency of construction artisans and craftsmen.

    BCPG Coordinator, Ikorodu cell, Olusola Amusan, an architect, enjoined clients and those who would want to engage the services of craftsmen in the informal sector to insist on seeing and verifying the certificates of the craftsmen before giving them job.

    In his message to participants, Vice Chairman, BCPG Lagos State Chapter, Olajide Olayinka, an estate surveyor and valuer, encouraged parents to see future value in vocational education rather than pursuing mere academic programme that would lead their children to idleness from unemployment.

    Also, BCPG Lagos State Chapter Treasurer, Mrs. Olukemi Okusaga, a quantity surveyor, warned property owners of the implications of engaging incompetent craftsmen, adding that the extra cost that could be incurred in future corrections on the substandard construction works carried out by this category of workers, can be phenomenal.

    The National President of BCPG, Mr. George Akinola, a fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Architects promised that BCPG would upload on

  • Six mistakes to avoid when buying properties

    PROPERTY World African Network Group (PWAN) Chief Executive Officer,  Marc Austine, has advised Nigerians to be weary of six common mistakes when buying landed properties.

    Austine listed them to include not conducting a proper search on a property before making payment for it. He warned prospective property buyers not to be influenced by the market offerings  to avoid jumping at any offer on the table.

    Other mistakes to avoid, according to him, include buyers to stick to their budget by being sure of their yearly or monthly earnings. Importantly, he cautioned that before making a commitment to a property, it is good to determine how much you earn and know how much you can pay back in a month.

    “Land is not all about the price, location first before the price. Not having the right property clause. Not going for inspection. Why would you just stay in your house and make payment without inspection?” Austine queried.

    The PWAN boss urged Nigerians to be careful when buying landed properties so as not to buy from unregistered organisation. Nigerians between 25 and 55, who are not taking advantage of the real estate, he said, were mising their investment opportunities. “Real estate business has been a hot cake in Nigeria; it is capable of turning one into a millionaire,” Austin said.

    He said through his firm’s initiative, the Home Ownership Made Easy Scheme (HOMES), a lot of Nigerians have been helped to acquire genuine properties, real estate buying and selling and making their home ownership dream a reality. “We are the first company to start real estate network marketing,” he said.

  • BCPG seeks better craftsmen

    Members of Building Collapse Prevention Guild (BCPG), Ikorodu Cell, Lagos, have urged stakeholders in the local construction industry to promote the use of competent craftsmen to reduce the spate of unsatisfactory works in building production across the country.

    The call was made at a seminar organised by the built environment professionals living or working in Ikorodu.

    The seminar was themed: “Profiling craftsmen competency in the Nigerian construction industry.”

    The guest speaker, a Department of Building Technology lecturer, Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu, Salisu Harfiz, lamented that the  academic system has failed to pay adequate attention to handicraft training, a situation, which  he said has led to graduation of half-baked craftsmen, which has led to competency challenges for the industry.

    To overcome this inadequacy, Harfiz, who is also the Second Vice- President, of the Nigerian Association of Engineering Craftsmen (NAEC), advocated an increase in the provision of modern technological training, including modern day tools and equipment in technical colleges and construction – skills- acquisition centres across the country.

    He, therefore, appealed to the Nigerian Board for Technical Education to sustain the newly introduced National Skills Qualifications Framework, which is aimed at assessing and upgrading the competency of construction artisans and craftsmen.

    BCPG Coordinator, Ikorodu cell, Olusola Amusan, an architect, enjoined clients and those who would want to engage the services of craftsmen in the informal sector to insist on seeing and verifying the certificates of the craftsmen before giving them job.

    In his message to participants, Vice Chairman, BCPG Lagos State Chapter, Olajide Olayinka, an estate surveyor and valuer, encouraged parents to see future value in vocational education rather than pursuing mere academic programme that would lead their children to idleness from unemployment.

    Also, BCPG Lagos State Chapter Treasurer, Mrs. Olukemi Okusaga, a quantity surveyor, warned property owners of the implications of engaging incompetent craftsmen, adding that the extra cost that could be incurred in future corrections on the substandard construction works carried out by this category of workers, can be phenomenal.