The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Wood

  • ‘Maintenance will increase demand for building materials’

    Demand for the supply of building materials such as wood, pipes, paint, tiles, electrical fittings, windows and tools is set to rise following the recent approval of National Maintenance Framework for public buildings by Federal Executive Council (FEC).

    Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, who spoke on the importance of the approval , said the scheme was aimed at ensuring that public buildings are protected and maintained to save resources for new projects.

    On what the approval means, the Minister said it is a breakthrough in the nation’s quest for maintenance culture. He said after decades of agonising about lack of maintenance, the Buhari administration had chosen to act because the records did not indicate that any such policy decision had previously been taken at the Federal level.

    He said:”The decision was provoked by a memorandum from the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing that challenged the conventional thinking that Nigeria does not have a maintenance culture. The memorandum argued and FEC agreed that maintenance of infrastructure; whether public or private, is not a cultural issue, but an economic one.

    “In one of our sample buildings, leading up to the memorandum to FEC, we found out that out of 63 air-conditioning units, 11 required replacement or repair. We also identified windows, doors, tiles, roofing materials, plastering work that required replacement or repair.

    “The maintenance programme is then developed from these assessments as to what jobs need to be done to restore the building to fitness, what needs to be replaced and what needs to be repaired. This is the basis for the award of the maintenance contract following the existing procurement law.”

    He explained that the award of contract would not only drive employment for artisans, but would also drive demand of manufacturing and supply of parts like wood, pipes, paint, tiles, electrical fittings, windows and tools, in addition to those of cleaning items like detergent, polish and varnish.

    “This is the economy that we see ahead as we set out to implement this approval starting from buildings, and as I said, and extending to roads, rail, bridges etc. as we progress,” he said.

  • Building a future out of wood

    Building a future out of wood

    Her dream of starting a furniture company has turned into an amazing entrepreneurial success story. Founder and Creative Director of Design Options (DO.II), Mrs Ifeyinwa Ighodalo, is a living proof of a dream come true. DANIEL ESSIET reports.

    The founder and Creative Director of Design Options (DO.II), Mrs Ifeyinwa Ighodalo, always wanted people  to buy beautiful furniture and home furnishings and this desire became her mission.

    She said: “I was 12 years old when my father was studying for his MBA degree. He would come home from the university and tutor me on what he was studying. This inspired my interest in business. I decided to study accountancy in the university because I was very good in Mathematics and also because I knew I was eventually going to pursue a career in business.

    While I was at the university, I discovered my interest in interiors. Upon graduation, I decided that my interest in interior design would be my future career. Eventually what I actually ended up practising which is my real passion, is furniture manufacturing. The interior design aspect of my business is to support the core business of furniture manufacturing.”

    In 1990, she took the plunge into business ownership, kissed jobs good-bye, and set out in pursuit of the dream of starting a furniture production company. She started doing some small jobs and mainly through personal sale, until she began to get more and more work. “Design Options was started with little or no capital and was built on goodwill and excellent business practices,” she said, adding. “Today, the picture is different.”  Now, with a steady stream of orders coming in, she has moved to a bigger workshop where she has the potential and a space to do more designs. The place is much more industrial-manufacturing friendly and there’s room for expansion. The movement to a bigger workshop has resulted in her increasing her staff strength.

    On how much DO.II is worth now, she said: “It is safe to say we have quadrupled more than our initial investment.”  At the moment the main challenge, is the high cost of production and the lack of cost effective power supply.  She noted: “Alongside this I would say the lack of a consistent flow of high quality raw materials, a very low calibre of manpower and an unregulated competition from imports, render us a lot less competitive than our foreign counterparts. We cannot work without power, so I will say that is actually one of our major challenges.

    To boost capacity, she has employed over 40 technicians who provide their expertise in various capacities and departments.

    Today, she has built a company that produces furniture from a large production facility in Ojota, Lagos, with regular deliveries to large corporate and government agencies.  Her service is proving to be in  high demand and she offers her impressive craftsmanship in both traditional and contemporary styles. She has had to make a lot of sacrifices in order to build something from nothing.

    The sacrifices are huge, no surprise there. Fortunately however, the payoff happens a little bit each day. It comes in the form of accomplishments every week as she watches the   little company turn into a national brand. What she has learnt over the years is that design and business are interlinked – one cannot succeed without the other. The other thing is that positive leadership conveys a clear message and vision to the staff.  Consequently, she is enthusing her staff with passion and dedication to business and this has gone a long way to helping the company achieve success.

    The best thing that has happened to her is recruiting young crops of professionals determined to see the business grow. Right now, the young team is taking the image and brand of the company seriously. These efforts are impacting on revenue and brand awareness.

    She is encouraged by the fact that growth will continue to accelerate in the face of the current economic downturn and the attitude of government towards banning importation of products that can be produced locally.

  • Let’s not replace gold with wood

    SIR: No one replaces gold with wood. No one replaces honey with bean cakes. We have found a vast deposit of gold and honey and we don’t intend to lose or replace it.  Our vast deposit of gold is Senator Jide Omoworare’s heart of gold with which he has represented us in Abuja and touched our lives in the last four years. Our vast deposits of honey are his exemplary character and performance – we have tasted it, and we affirm that nothing tastes like it.

    His tenure as our Senator has brought tremendous development and senatorial presence to the people of our senatorial district. His exemplary attitude to service was first displayed on his thanksgiving visit to Owa’s palace in Ilesha. The then newly elected senator had noticed that the premises of the monarch’s palace was unbefitting for royalty, and without hesitation, he commenced the renovation of the palace. The expenses were borne out of his pocket – that is, from personal funds while he was yet to receive any form of emolument from his new office.

    In less than four years, Omoworare sponsored nine bills. These are bills, when fully passed, will solidify the foundations and application of our nation’s constitution.

    Whilst most of the Bills have passed the first readings and have their Senate Bill (SB) numbers, the others were yet to be listed by the Business Rules Committee of the Senate. However, one of the Bills has been passed by the Senate and gone to the House of Representatives for concurrence and thereafter to the President for assent. He also has five motions to his credits.

    Reckoning that education is key in the formation of a society’s future, Senator Omoworare singlehandedly constructed blocks of three classrooms with offices, VIP toilets and manual boreholes in over four locations in his senatorial district.

    Our Senator provided developmental support for Ife/ Ijesha youths. He nominated about 40 young graduates for employment in federal government establishments and about 50 young men and women for employment by the state government. He championed the organization of a job clinic to assist the youth of his constituency in acquiring different skills and trade as well as prepare them for employment in private blue chip companies. He further established a skill acquisition centre – to continually provide vocational education to his constituents. The senator assisted 15 of his constituent to participate in Ipade Omo-Ile (IPALE) in United Kingdom and he sponsored 24 youths on exchange to Detroit in United States. Some 80 youths have completed the computer appreciation training, all on the senator’s bill.

    Senator Omoworare is not oblivious of the importance of safety and security of the lives of his constituents. He ensured that the streets are well lit, providing over 90 solar powered street lights. He is equally aware of the need for potable water.

    The Senator also collaborated with other public officials to attract state projects such as the Injection Power Station in OAUTH, Omi Okun Road and Ile-Ife and Ita Osin Road to name a few.

    However, beyond his infrastructural, educational or legislative exploits, the distinguished Senator donated relief materials in conjunction with National Emergency Management Agency to Victims of fire incident at Oja-Tuntun, Odo-Ogbe Ile-Ife.

    Senator Babajide Omoworare stands as the most responsive and responsible senator to ever represent Osun East Senatorial District. It took an ‘ordinary’ Facebook comment made by Ogbeni Akinsuyi Titus Ikeji Arakeji on the sorry state of the lkeji Arakeji High School for Senator to come to the school’s rescue. Jide moved physically and financially to ensure the restoration of the school.

    By far, Jide’s excellent stride as a senator is the dictionary definition of “one good turn” – it surely deserves another. His unrivalled commitment to work earned him an award from the Ijesha People in Diaspora, even though he is of Ife origin.

    Let us reelect him again – we should not trade gold for wood or honey for bean cakes

    Senator Omoworare deserves our vote and support for a second term. Let’s re-elect our gold and honey.

     

    • Omowaiye Oluremi

    Ikoti o Lane, Ilesa

  • Odubajo shines against Boreham Wood

    Odubajo shines against Boreham Wood

    Brentford boss Mark Warburton  included Moses Odubajo in his squad that faced Boreham Wood on Thursday, and the Nigerian winger performed decently in the club’s first pre-season match.

    Odubajo signed for the Championship side Brentford on a three-year deal for an undisclosed fee on 27th June, 2014.

    The 20-year-old joined his new team-mates in the United States of America for an eleven-day training camp.

    But after looking sharp in the training sessions conducted in the last two weeks, the 51-year-old included Odubajo in his squad for the game.

    It was their first friendly ahead of the 2014/2015 Sky Bet Championship season against Boreham Wood and the Nigerian had a good performanece at the Boreham Wood’s Meadow Park venue of the match.