Construction
By Chinyere Nwachukwu
Lagos, July 11, 2018 (NAN) The Faculty of Environmental Sciences, University of Lagos, has identified lack of continuity in project funding as a major challenge facing delivery of smart infrastructure in Nigeria’s construction industry.
This is contained in a communique issued at the end of a two-day construction summit organised by the faculty in Lagos.
The communique was signed by the Dean of the faculty, Prof. Mike Adebamowo.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the summit had the theme: “Smart Infrastructure for Sustainable Competitiveness: A Co-creation Agenda for a Competitive, Inclusive and Sustainable Construction Industry in Nigeria’’.
According to the communique, poor planning, political instability and inadequate finance also contributed to the situation.
It added that bureaucratic process in fund allocation and poor supervision of projects compounded the problem.
It said that wasteful construction techniques and approaches, largely dominated by rudimentary construction tools, would neither deliver the much needed housing units nor support smart infrastructure.
“There were statistics of chronic uncompleted projects over a period of three decades,” it said.
According to the communique, there should be more ‘town and gown’ interactions – for dissemination of research findings – and adoption of appropriate technology to promote local value addition as a key component necessary for industrialisation.
It advised that governments should be guided by appropriate technology in the provision of efficient and effective smart infrastructure to promote sustainable competitiveness in the industry.
It said that the government should avoid inconsistency in policies and adhere to agreements and court orders.
It added that provision of affordable housing for the population would require substitution of the approach that leaned on inefficient wasteful construction techniques, with a more innovative and smart indigenous technology.
In an interview with NAN, the dean said that there was the need to position all stakeholders to harness the potential of the sector and continue to drive growth, with investment in infrastructure construction and power.
“The Nigeria construction industry plays a predominant role in providing the infrastructure needs of the entire economy,” he said. (NAN)
CCN/ERO
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Edited by Emmanuel Okara/Ijeoma Popoola