The Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS) says it is collaborating with the Federal Government and other professional bodies to address high cost of building in the country.
The NIQS President, Mr Abba Tor, who said this at a news briefing on Thursday in Abuja, said the institute was also working relentlessly to tackle the issue of building collapse in Nigeria.
Tor said he was delighted at numerous steps by the Federal Government to provide affordable houses for citizens.
“I recall the actions as one of the institute’s initiative earlier submitted to the government in 2020.
“We are delighted that the Federal Government has come up with the programme to provide affordable houses to people.
“I recalled that we made a call to the government to engage manufacturers to provide cement at discounted rate to Nigerians and also, producers of other raw materials to cushion the effect of building cost,” he said.
Tor noted that high cost of building materials had contributed immensely to building collapse as people are looking for short cut, resulting to buying inferior materials, thereby contributing to incessant collapses.
“The institute had made suggestions to the government to encourage producers of local building materials which have further advantage to provide job opportunities and also crash the cost as much as possible.
“If you look at the exchange rate of naira to dollar, and you realise the important component of building materials, this alone will impact negatively on some of the building structures.
“As professional construction cost managers, we are further appealing to cement manufacturers to consider a reduction in price beyond the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP) scheme for the benefits of the entire citizenry, “ Tor appealed.
The NIQS president, therefore, suggested that government should make deliberate efforts to encourage manufacturing of some critical building materials within the country.
He said that this would go a long way to address some of the challenges in the building industry. (NAN)
