By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and the Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria (CORBON) have resolved to renew their collaboration towards institutionalizing standards in the construction sector with a view to stemming the tide of building collapse and structural failures throughout the nation.
This resolution was reached during a courtesy visit of the council officials led by the Chairman, Professor Kabir Bala, to the office of the Director General of SON, Mr Osita Aboloma, and his management in Abuja.
Prof Bala, who is also the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Administration, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, called for high quality values at all levels by developing and implementing more technical standards for production processes in the building and construction sector.
He called for closer monitoring, control and enforcement of quality of materials through the establishment of more materials testing laboratories across the country.
“CORBON is desirous of partnering with SON in establishment and management of a database of Physical Building Resources that will provide information on location and availability of standard materials to assist builders in accessing the right materials,” he said.
According to him, the council has developed a set of standards to enable a professional builder to effectively administer the construction processes within budget limits, time, and specified quality.
The CORBON Chairman stated that the Building Production Management Standards which are to ensure the success of building production process are segmented into construction, project quality management, health and safety programmes and construction methodology.
“The Standards will enable a building project owner extract commitment from a builder on adherence to production standards and specifications at the first attempt; protection of employees and the public from hazards that may arise due to production activities; efficient management of production resources; and adherence to statutory requirements, tests, inspections, quality certifications as may be required.
Responding, the SON Chief Executive expressed the organisation’s readiness to cooperate with CORBON, saying that environmental issues and resource management needed to be brought to the forefront in the building and construction sector.
Represented by a director, Barrister Richard Agu, the DG noted that the cooperation of the two organisations many years back had helped in bringing issues and dangers of building collapse to the forefront of public discourse.
“In the upcoming financial year, we intend focus on building collapse among many other issues and we are happy to reconnect with CORBON after jointly organising a national on the subject as far back as 2004”, he said.
SON, according to him, will be disposed to supporting the forthcoming 2018 builders congress through delivery of technical papers, exhibition of standards among others.
Barr Agu proposed a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two organisations to leverage on the extensive regulatory powers in the new SON Act 14 of 2018 in the overall interest of the nation and its citizens.
He admonished CORBON members and institutions to take advantage of SON capabilities in management systems certification of their services in quality and environment among others.
Contributing, Director of Operations, SON, Engr. Felix Nyado, disclosed that all SON State offices nationwide have mobile sandcrete block testing machines for quality assurance.
He advised CORBON to also key into knowledge sharing through more active participation in the national mirror committee for development of international standards under the auspices of the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) activities relating to the built sector and environmental sustainability.
