Against the backdrop of the lull in the construction industry and the attendant adverse impact on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS), last week, renewed the clamour for the urgent formation of a Construction Industry Development Board, (CIDB).
The President of the Institute, Mr. Obafemi Onashille explained that CIDB or Construction Industry Development Council, (CIDC) will be responsible for the formulation, implementation and regulation of policies that will galvanise and breathe life into the ailing sector, which is regarded as the barometer for measuring the economic health of a country.
Onashile, in a chat at the Institute’s Victoria Island liaison office, Lagos, advocated a partnership between the government, built environment professional bodies and contractors to midwife the birth of the Board which is expected to play a leadership role in the construction industry.
He listed the challenges impeding the growth and development of industry to include housing deficiency, degradation of the urban environment, over-stretched infrastructure, high construction costs, government’s non-patronage of local experts and non-payment of contractors and consultants for completed jobs.
The NIQS President also decried the gradual but persistent lowering standards and quality of construction materials. He called on the government and industry stakeholders to collaborate with a view to forming a Construction Industry Training Board, (CITB). The Training Board, according to Onashile, will promote and manage technical/vocational training of skills for the industry.
Reeling out the panacea to the festering challenges confronting the industry, Onashile also canvassed the creation of what he called “purpose-fit judicial systems for the industry”. This will involve the creation of Construction Courts and enactment of laws that would recognise and promote faster dispute resolution mechanisms such as arbitration and mediation.
The NIQS President reiterated the urgent need for affordable housing in the country and called on the Federal and State governments to play more active roles in the production of social housing in the country. “The government should build and deliver affordable houses to civil servants and other vulnerable members of the society,” Onashile urged.