FG grants licenses for bulk importation of cement
Gbola Subair, Abuja
From left, Mr. Deji Oguntonade, Director of
Information Technology, FirstInland Bank Plc,
Prince A. Odulana, Olubadan’s representative,
Chief Afe Babalola, SAN, Chief Olayiwola
Olakojo,
Secretary to the Oyo State
Government, during the
investors’ forum
organised by FirstInland Bank Plc in
Ibadan, recently. Photo: Tunde Babajide.
THE Federal
Government has
granted licences for bulk importation of cement to enable local Manufacturers bridge the deficit between the market demands and supply of cement in the country. This was announced by the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Engr. Charles C. Ugwu, while addressing the meeting of stakeholders in the cement sub-sector in his office in Abuja.
Announcing the Federal government’s decision, the Minister explained that government decision was intended to grow the local capacity production to meet Nigeria’s domestic demands, help alleviate the suffering of consumers who pay heavily for the product, stabilize prices, and the supply of cement as well as encourage the investors in the cement sub-sector.
The Minister noted with displeasure that up till now the local operators can only supply between 6 and 6.5 million tones of cement leaving the deficit of 11.5 million tones. Such situation, he said is unacceptable to the Federal Government.
Engr. Ugwu explained that President Yar;Adua was not happy about the shortage of cement as against demand of the product in the market.
He said the meeting is important because it is called at the instance of the President following the October meeting he had with the stakeholders in the industry “.
Engr. Ugwu warned that if the stakeholders continue to push the price of cement high either due to their inefficiency, poor planning or whatever, the price of cement would get to a level that it will be very exiting for bigger players in Europe to come in and they will be the losers.
Earlier stakeholders at the meeting had complained of constant short supply of gas which is required for production of cement, high cost on demurrage payment for each tone of cement, high cost of transportation due to bad roads in the country.
Present at the meeting were representatives of 13 cement manufacturing companies in the country, they included Dangote Group of companies, Lafarge Group, West African Portland CemtnPlc. Flour Mills Nigeria, Ibeto Cement company and Eastern Bulkcem Ltd.
Others included Quacem Cement company, Essette (Nig.) Limited, Gateway Mining Company Ltd, Purehem Industries Ltd, Gateway Portland Cement Ltd, Westcom Technologies and energy Service and International Cement company Ltd.
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‘Subsoil investigation, prerequisite to building development’
Kunle Awobodu, Chairman of the Lagos Chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB), in this interview with Dayo Ayeyemi, blames frequent incidents of building collapse on lack of sub soil investigation before building construction and non existence of maintenance scheme after completion. Excerpts:
Incidents of building collapse, especially in Lagos State keep recurring, despite efforts at taming the menacee. Are you disturbed at all as a built environment expert?
Of course, yes. When you are in a society where ignorance reigns supreme, it is difficult to make people realise that many of the dilapidating buildings they in which they are residing are about to collapse. Another reason is about the scarcity of decent accommodation in the country. When you go to Ebute Metta Area of Lagos, there are some buildings that are showing obvious signs of dilapidation and may collapse. They are already sinking structures, but you find people still living in them. I believe that some concerned citizens must have advised them to relocate before imminent collapses occur, but the argument they put across is that they have no alternative accommodations. Based on this, it is believed that God we see them through. This also leads us to the economic factor. The per capital income of average Nigerian is low, and as a result of that, people cannot afford decent housing.
How can we identify defective buildings?
We are talking of signs that a building shows before it collapses. From the roof, there are some signs such as leakages of the roof, weak timber members, sagging of concrete slabs and cracks. If you see some of these signs in a building, there is tendency for such a structure to collapse. The suspended concrete slab would reveal some signs of sagging to show its weakness; the foundation would show one or more signs of being defective; and there would be some recurring sound of cracks in the building.
For example, a building collapsed at the Federal Technical College, Yaba, last Friday. It was an old building, a two-storey building. When we visited the scene, we discovered that it was constructed in 1948 by the colonial. That is, the building was constructed some 68 years ago. The average life span of a building is 50 years, but it is on record that we have buildings that have outlived 100 years or more, especially in the advanced countries due to adequate maintenance. We discovered on the scene of the collapsed building that the structure lacked maintenance. We discovered that the roof had been leaking without repair and this, of course, had weakened the timber members. They could no longer sustain the roof.
You are one of the experts canvassing mandatory sub soil investigation before embarking on building development. Can you elaborate more on this topic?
Sub soil investigation is a pre-requisite at a building site. Sub Soil Investigation necessitates taking equipment to site, drilling and investigating the sub surface materials in terms of their nature, material strength and capacity, in order to determine whether the structure to be constructed can be sustain by the soil. We have had many instances of building failure due to lack of comprehensive sub soil investigation. When we looked at some of the buildings on the Lagos Island that are defective, we discovered that there was no sub soil investigation carried out before erecting them.
Despite the waterlog terrain of the environment, there had never been any report of sub soil study before these buildings were constructed. The Governor of Lagos State mentioned this during the last building collapse on the Lagos Island, that there was no sub soil test before some of the buildings were built. In such as case, the zone should be pronounced a disaster zone. It is now left for experts to know how they can shore-up or observing those buildings subjected to foundation failures. But we are in a society where people do not see any importance about sub soil investigation; and this is due to lack of awareness. There is no deliberate campaign to enlighten people about the importance of sub soil test before building construction. People are not even ready to pay for such a service because they don’t understand its importance. Also, I must not forget to mention that there is also quackery too at that level, because if you are not paying adequately for a service, then people are bound to cheat to be able to make profit. If you want to do a thorough sub soil investigation, you should be able to save enough for it. I want you to look at the issue this way, the land you bought cost millions of naira and then the high cost of building materials. Therefore, people may not consider sub soil investigation crucial to building construction process, although sub soil investigation guides a client on a type of structure he should put on a land.
Is there any remedy to some of the defective structures on the Lagos Island buildings?
Research to foundation salvaging has been able to take some foundations from total structural failures through underpinning. This is a technical approach that is reliable and has shown results. What to do first is to conduct geo-technical sub soil investigation to know the next step. Without such an investigation, you won’t know the depth and strength of the soil you are building on.
Some of the buildings can be rescued. We have salvaged some buildings in the state.
We are also advising government that if it wants to salvage buildings that have given signs of collapse, it is either to demolish or by introducing new methods. But firstly, there must be a sub soil investigation.
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