Miffed by the rapidity of incidence of building collapse across the country, the Director General of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Dr. Ifeanyi Okeke has made strident calls for the imposition of severe punitive measures to serve as deterrent to those perpetrating the heinous crimes.
He made this call during a stakeholders’ engagement programme in Lagos.
Okeke who disclosed that investigations carried out by the SON showed the cause of incessant building collapse was attributed to poor structural designs, quackery and unprofessionalism and inadequate or lack of soil testing, lamented that such poor construction practices and procedures, remain the bane of the construction industry.
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The SON boss who revealed that the agency has since produced 168 Standards and Codes of Practice for the building and construction industry since 2004 for contractors to implement during construction, further outlined the Nigerian Industrial Standard (NIS) 117: 2004 Specification for Steel Bars for the Reinforcement of Concrete, Nigerian Industrial Standard (NIS) 499: 2004 Standard for Iron and Steel, Nigerian Industrial Standard (NIS) 588: 2007 Testing Hardened Concrete Part 1:Method for Determination of the Compressive Strength of Concrete Cores, Nigerian Industrial Standard (NIS) 585: 2007 Standard for Concrete Admixtures – Part 1 – Specification for Accelerating Admixtures, Retarding Admixtures and Water Reducing Admixtures, Nigerian Industrial Standard (NIS) 156:1982 Standard Method for Testing Fresh Concrete and Nigerian Industrial Standard (NIS) ISO 41001:2020 Facility Management System Standard amongst others, as some of the standard procedures adopted by the SON.
Besides, he said the SON has established regulatory powers established in the SON Act to regulate locally manufactured products through its Mandatory Conformity Assessment Programme (MANCAP) and its pre-shipment verification of conformity to standards for imported goods through the Standards Organisation of Nigeria Conformity Assessment Programme (SONCAP).