AbdulRaheem Aodu
Just 24 hours after the Federal Government rated Nigeria as the best economy in Africa, it has been revealed that the country loses over N9 billion annually to artisans and craftsmen from neighbouring countries working for companies in the country.
National President, Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB), Mr Tunde Lasabi made the revelation yesterday in Kaduna while addressing a workshop organised for artisans and craftsmen from the North-west geopolitical zone organized in conjunction with SURE-P and the Ministry of Labour and Productivity.
He said the training was aimed at improving the skills of the craftsmen and artisans, as well as providing them with the competitive edge that would enable them attract the huge amount of money paid to foreigners.
According to Lisabi, the training and up-skilling of 1000 youths nationwide with about 30 drawn from each of the 36 states and the FCT, was to ensure that most of the artisans and craftsmen were trained professionally, as a way of putting an end to the issue of collapsed buildings that had been on the rise in recent time.
“There was a report that about N9 billion is paid to those people who are non-Nigerians, who come from neighbouring countries, because they are the ones taking up the jobs of the artisans.
“Apart from the up-skilling, we find a situation in which there will be employment opportunities for these people. The builders are the ones empowered to supervise the activities at the site. That is why we are the right personnel and institute to train them in this respect,” the NIOB president said.
On the recurring incidents of collapsed buildings, Lisabi further noted that “there is the menace of collapsed building, and it occurs not as a result of only low quality of materials but that of the personnel.
“When you have people who are not properly trained, they go on the site to construct and at the end of the day, the building will collapse because they don’t know what they are doing.
“A builder is a manager of the production process who understands languages of the architects, structural engineer and quantity surveyors. And if you don’t have the right personnel, artisans and craftsmen doing the job for you, there would be poor performance in the job.”
In his remark, the Kaduna state chairman of the NIOB, Dr Monday Madaki, said the training was aimed at producing quality artisans and craftsmen that would uphold building standards and stop the trend of collapsed buildings.
