Disturbed by the rising cost of building materials, the Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB) has called for collaborative research and production of alternative building materials.
NIOB President, Mr. Kunle Awobodu, made the call when he led a delegation to Lafarge Plc in Lagos to explore ways for standard, safe and durable buildings in the country.
The NIOB delegation included, the first Vice President, Prof. Yohana Izam, third Vice President, Bimbo Kolade. Others include, the Chairman, Association of Professional Women Builders of Nigeria, Mrs. Adenike Said, the Chairman NIOB Lagos chapter, Sunday Wusu; Dr. Patricia Kukoyi, Thomas Adeoye, Chukwurah Godfrey and Mrs. Modupe Ogunbanjo.
Awobodu explained that NIOB has a large reservoir of research resources, consisting of research works on locally available materials.
According to him, some of the areas of research include the use of pozollana, rice husk ash, and corncob ash as a partial replacement in cement. He observed that beyond publicising the research efforts, the utilisation of those research outputs in the production of cement will increase affordability and drive down costs.
The Chairman of the institutes’ Research and Development Committee, who is the immediate past Deputy Governor of Ekiti State, Prof. Kolapo Eleka, explained that the development of standards for cement and other alternative locally available materials will encourage the manufacture and utilisation of such materials.
On his part, the Chairman, Association of Builders in Academia, Prof. Martin Dada, said using alternative materials would promote profitability and sustainability in the industry.
Speaking during the visit, the Country’s Chief Executive Officer of Lafarge Plc, Khaled El-Dokani, welcomed the proposal from the institute. He noted that the issue of reuse of items recovered from demolished or deconstructed buildings under some circumstances would promote sustainability and reduction of carbon footprint or carbon emissions.
He acknowledged that a major challenge to be tackled centres on the introduction of new and good products as well as getting stakeholders buy-in and managing perceptions of members of the society to take advantage of such products.
El Dokani called for public enlightenment in the specification and use of such new products.
