By Ismaila Chafe
President Muhammadu Buhari has assented to the Engineers Registration Amendment Act 2019, to address the menace of collapsed buildings and other cases of engineering failures in the country.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters, Sen. Ita Enang, revealed this when he briefed State House correspondents in Abuja on Friday.
According to him, the Act also establishes the Council for Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) with far-reaching powers of prosecution of infractions, regulating industrial training of Engineers, capacity building of local content in engineering industry.
He said that the new law granted COREN power of prosecuting “any person or firm that contravenes the provisions of this Act in a court of competent jurisdiction; regulating industrial training schemes in engineering practitioners and students:
“Ensuring capacity building and monitoring local content development in the Nigerian engineering industry through
“Mandatory attachment of Nigerians to expatriate engineers on major projects to understudy them from inception and ensuring that all foreign engineering firms establish their design offices in Nigeria
“Granting of compulsory attestation to all expatriate quota for engineering practitioners; including key projects that there are no qualified and competent Nigerians for the job in question at the time of application;
“Ensuring that, before being allowed to practice in Nigeria, such foreign engineering practitioners must be granted work permit, register with the council and obtain such licenses as may be required from time to time.’’
The presidential aide said that the Act further admitted into the council the following: “Nigerian Association of Technologists in Engineering, Nigerian Society of Engineering Technicians, and Nigerian Association of Engineering Craftsmen.”
Enang said with the new Act, “COREN is now entitled to maintain a fund into which shall be paid money appropriated by the National Assembly, subventions, fees, charges for services rendered or publication made, donations, engineering development levy, among others’’.
The presidential aide revealed that the Amendment stated that the Directorate of the National Youth Service Corps shall ensure posting of graduate engineers and technologists to places of relevant professional engineering experience.
“Pursuant to the provision of subsection (i) ,the Directorate of National Youth Service Corps shall communicate the location of graduate engineers and engineering technologists to the Council,’’ he said.(NAN)
