Afam Nwana is the Chairman/CEO of Abuja-based Mosaf Group of Companies. In this interview with NWANOSIKE ONU, he explains why buildings collapse and proffers solutions to the problem.
As the helmsman of MOSAF, can you tell us your achievements so far in the past 30 years?
Effectively, MOSAF Nigeria Limited started operation in July 1986. We have been like a growing child. There was a time we were pursuing gatehouses, fences and boys’ quarters, clearing and all. But now, we are building skyscrapers and power plants. We are designing rail lines, building hospitals and schools.
We are equally involved in project management and consultancy services, developing merger projects like rail lines, airports, cargo facilities and canals.
We are happy that we are involved in the conceptualisation and development of some serious projects in Nigeria. We are now involved in building the biggest laboratory in the West Coast of Africa for Standard Organisation of Nigeria at Ogba Industrial Estate in Lagos which sits on almost 1.5 hectares of land.
We are involved in such projects as planning of/and designing the Calabar and Lagos coastal rail lines in conjunction with our international partners. We are also involved in the construction of the Kaduna 230 mega watts power plant as well as the Wind Farm Development in Katsina. We are involved in solar farm in Jigawa. So, MOSAF has come of age and we thank God that in the last 29 years, we have done well. But we wouldn’t have done all these without a team of dedicated and loyal staff that providence provided for us.
What are your policy thrusts in terms of running MOSAF as an indigenous company?
We are an indigenous construction company. In the circumstances, we, in 1992, started what we call reactivation of the Nigeria Chamber of Indigenous Contractors which I had the privilege of serving as the Secretary General. Incidentally, that was during Ibrahim Babangida’s regime. He asked us to come up with a construction policy which government would sign into law to check capital flight.
I provided two offices with a secretary, a car and fully furnished offices for the Nigerian Chambers of Indigenous Contractors in Lagos with the aim of developing indigenous capacities, capabilities and competences.
We put in place a policy framework, but the then government failed to implement the proposal. Nigeria needs a signed construction policy as it obtains in countries like Israel, America, India, Australia and England.
The construction industry can bring in a lot of money for Nigeria because if we have a policy and people are benefiting from it, we can export construction and generate a lot of foreign exchange for the country. That has been my goal in the last 20 years as the Secretary-General and Deputy Chairman of Nigeria Chambers of Indigenous Contractors.
As a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, I have been training engineers and impacting on Nigerians positively. MOSAF group has been training a lot of people and they are doing very well. We need a government policy that will help drive it to the next level.
As an indigenous contractor and a foremost engineer in the system, how worried are you about frequent building s collapse? Again, are you not worried about issues concerning construction quality and the quality of delivery by your colleagues?
When you have data, policy and law but you don’t implement them, what you get is chaos or anarchy. The system cannot produce anything better. Buildings are collapsing because contracts are awarded to people who are practising contractors. Everybody is a contractor.
Contracts should be awarded to the right people based on the right policies guiding such process. We have been talking about policy implementation. Let me mention one of the policies we are talking about. We mentioned it to Babangida, and I remember I was singled out in the Senate building of the Tafawa Balewa Square when Babangida was the President. He asked if the indigenous contractors could build the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas. I raised my hand but I was not allowed to talk.
Construction is about logistics. But let it be handled by professionals. What am saying about policy is that any big project in Nigeria that is above 50 million Dollars should be given to a foreign company but make a policy that a percentage of it must be carried out locally and those local contractors must be satisfied that these companies have competences and capabilities to carry out the task, while they could be supervised by big contractors.
After executing five to 10 projects, the indigenous contractors would have gathered the experiences, competences and capabilities to execute complex projects. We are experiencing building collapse because we tend to contract out big jobs without proper supervision to ensure they do not use labourers instead of using skilled labour. When you give out a project on contract without adequate supervision, it is difficult to hold somebody accountable with regard to quality assurance.
We should not forget the issue of corruption which is endemic. When those supervising a project are after how to line their pockets with money, then they are not professionals. We have always emphasised that we should be given jobs and allow us to do it professionally.
Since we have been in the industry in the past 30 years, no building which we have constructed has collapsed. Go and check our records. We stand to be challenged in whatever service we have delivered. But when you give projects to non-professionals, what you get is what you bargained for.
Albert Enstein said that “everything is related”. Just as we are talking about construction engineering, it goes the same way with other professions which we all belong to. We have quack tailors, quack doctors, quack journalists, quack politicians and quack engineers. That is why we are experiencing building collapse. But none that we built has collapsed.
In terms of regulations, how can government ensure quality assurance in the delivery of projects executed by indigenous contractors?
Three things are necessary. First and foremost, there must be a Nigerian construction policy. Secondly, there must be a Nigerian construction bank. Thirdly, there must be enforcement of the laws that have been put in place.
What will be the functions of the construction banks?
When you have construction bank and construction policy, the problem of funding which results in cutting corners will be eradicated. Every builder will be registered just like we have in other professions like the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) which is saddled with the responsibility of monitoring the activities of lawyers. When you go to the bank to take loan to do a job, they will check, the regulatory bodies will do the double checking and you will find out that one of the people who do a lot of checking is the bank. Before a bank gives you loan facility, it makes sure that a lot of things are in place.
I have done jobs abroad and I know such things help to put check on the contractors. A contractor can’t claim to have built 10 or 20-floor edifice when he has never built a bungalow.
One secret that is sustaining MOSAF is that whatever we have done, we did it through documentation. Secondly, we don’t pay any money unless through the bank. So, the bank has been our accountant and auditor that check our books regularly.
Those things help to instill discipline in the contractor because discipline is very important in quality and quality gives standard and standard gives sustainability. That is the role of a bank.
In terms of quality delivery, time and competence of your engineers and basically quality assurance, what can you say are the landmark projects your firm has executed in the past 30 years?
When we have finished executing projects, people always say they were executed by Julius Berger. This makes my engineers and members of staff angry. I will tell them to cheer up because it means that the project executed met international standard.
But I want to tell you that we are matching them technology to technology, competence to competence and all that. The only thing we don’t have is patronage because we are not a foreign construction firm.
In terms of corporate social responsibilities, how has your company affected the lives of members of your host communities, especially the less-privileged people?
Everywhere we had worked, we ensure that we affected the lives of the people positively. In the Niger Delta region, we built halls and trained a lot of people in various fields. In my community, Enugu-Ukwu, we empowered 371 widows. We train orphans, we build schools and churches. We have a foundation called “The Friends of the Environment”, whose core mandate is cleaning the environment and the best environment to clean is your brain.
You are where you are today because your parents cleaned your brain, that is the greatest environment, clean this environment and every other thing is cleaned.
With the limited resources available to us, we have been able to impact positively on the education sector. We have trained over 169 graduates. The records are there to show.
Your firm is 30 years old. What are your expectations of this company in the next 10 years?
Rail line all through the West Coast, move about 100 million people along the West Coast, build a rail line along the West Coast to move human beings. The greatest thing you can do to human beings is to move them. If there are trains for mass movement of human beings, there will be fewer disasters like air crash and road accidents. People will have alternative means of transportation. We don’t have a choice for now.
In the next 10 years, MOSAF would want to play major role in the development of the country’s railway system.
Are you investing in that technology; are you working with the government to that effect?
Yes we are working with government and foreign concerns. What we need is to be supported.
Which of the countries are you collaborating with? Is your presence only in Nigeria or does it go beyond Africa?
We are collaborating with firms in German, America, England, French in the area of rails development, construction of power plants and consultancy.
In the area of project management, we collaborate with British firms, Asian firms and Hong Kong. We are collaborating with Indians on massive housing projects.
