Spread the love
The Kogi Government on Tuesday reaffirmed commitment to promote affordable alternative building materials that are locally available to meet the housing needs of ever increasing population in the state.
The Commissioner for Works, Housing, Lands and Urban Development, Engr Sadiq Abdulmumin, disclosed this at the opening ceremony of the third annual Kogi Built Environment and Building Materials (BEBM) Exhibition in Lokoja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the theme of the third BEBM exhibition was: “Indigenous Building Materials: An Alternative Approach to Housing Shortage in a Recessed Economy”.
The commissioner said that the essential requirement for socioeconomic growth and sustainable development of any society was the provision of life-enhancing and reliable infrastructural services such as good roads, power, transportation, affordable housing, among others.
He added the ministry had played the major role in planning, design, supervision and the eventual actualisation of tangible deliverables in line with the New Direction mantra of Gov. Yahaya Bello led Administration.
“A total of 17 road projects on contract are currently ongoing across the three senatorial districts of state with various levels of completion.
“In housing, lands and urban sector, various building development projects have been embarked upon, and the State Town Planing & Development Board, is being repositioned for proper monitoring and developmental control across the state.
“We expect that this gathering will propose recent technologies towards local building and construction materials production and use, especially the one involving less utilisation of cement which account for relatively high cost of building houses
“We will look into comparative analysis of stabilised blocks and the conventional sandcrete blocks usage in building houses for lower income earners, and the cost benefit of using cement-based rigid pavement, among others,” Abdulmumin said.
The Chairman of the event, Arc. Salman Idris, said that the number of mineral resources in Kogi would make the exhibition to be a unique one and a confluence of ideas, investment and networking opportunities to chart a new direction for real estate in the state.
“We shall be exploring the cost of saving architecture and alternative approach to delivering mass housing especially for our dear state.
“Over the years, housing need has continued to escalate without a matching corresponding supply to meet these needs.
“In Nigeria, for instance, the gap between demand and supply is put at 17 million housing units. This calls for exploration of different interventions to bridge this gap like we are doing today,” Idris said.
The engineer said opportunities abound for local and International Investors in Kogi in the areas of establishment of small and medium scale industries particularly for the production of building materials.
“Development of affordable housing schemes using specialised technologies, Provision of housing related infrastructure (services, energy, roads, waste, water, recreation, etc).
“Others are Housing Finance and Mortgages, Regeneration of existing estate locations, Organization of communities into housing cooperatives, Public Private Partnerships to compliment government efforts, among others,” he said.
Engr Oladipo Bayode, the Executive Director, BEBM Exhibition, said the annual event started in 2012, saying that the 2017 edition that commenced today would last between Oct. 17 to 20.
He noted that the exhibition was a gathering of tradesmen, manufacturers & suppliers of building materials, government, private practioners and policy makers to develop models capable of reducing construction costs and other related products.
Bayode urged the people to always consider the use of locally made materials as a serious alternative particularly at a time of recessed economy.
He added that the event would be rounded up by the cement production giant (Dangote Group) , aimed at sensitising participants on Dangote cement technology and a special expository on its strength and economic advantages.
Arc. John Attah, who delivered a paper on the theme of the exhibition: “Indigenous Building Materials: An Alternative Approach to Housing Shortage in a Recessed Economy”, said many problems were plaguing the effective delivery of housing in Nigeria.
Problems such as lack of finance, collateral required by the financial institutions, high cost of building materials, lack of maintenance culture, corrupt practices, and lack of supervision & control among others.
He therefore urged governments and the relevant stakeholders to and give priority and invest in local building materials to reduce high cost of building construction.
He added “If good governance is put in place to manage the problems of Nigerian economy, resulting in the achievement of adequate housing, then housing problem will be managed in a suitable manner within the next millennium”.
(NAN)
Spread the love
