FG tasked on technology adoption for better construction sector

Disturbed by the low technology adoption in the construction industry, stakeholders have urged the Federal Government to promote modern technology in the country.

They also implored the government to create large-scale construction, noting that it could control flooding, and make the built environment more sustainable.

According to them, the adoption of technology in building construction would save cost and foster efficiency. They made the call yesterday at the Big 5 Construct Nigeria exhibition and conference, organised by DMG Events in Lagos.

Speaking on the theme, “Innovative project management strategies for large-scale construction in Nigeria: Navigating challenges and maximising efficiency,” Builder/Project Manager, ENCON Sharon Engineering Service Limited, Eniafe Enianu Emmanuel, lamented that the non-adoption of technology was retarding the country by 75 per cent.

He said: “Building Information Modelling (BIM) has been in existence since 2014 or before that, but until now, we have not yet adopted it in Nigeria. That has caused a lot of clashes due to construction, a lot of reworks, and a lot of more spending. BIM is pretty old, but we have several methodologies of building, like prefabrication, we also have AI technologies coming up.”

“Alice is something that has not been talked about yet in Nigeria. So, we are very, very far back. We would need to pick up, and in picking up, it would involve the contribution of several stakeholders, from governments to private organisations, to the education bodies, because more people are not even aware of these technologies.”

Emmanuel added that the government should provide opportunities where people can learn these technologies and have ways of implementing them.

“I believe we can pick up. We have the resources, we have the talent, we have the ambition, we have a number of the workforce, elite workforce, with a lot of resources. If we can just harness all those resources, we will be able to scale much more, at a faster rate than other countries,” he added.

Lamenting on the non-implementation of policies in the built and construction industry, Executive Secretary of the Association of Housing Corporation of Nigeria (AHCN), Toye Eniola, stated that the development had set the industry backward. Portfolio Director, Construction DMG Events, Mehtap Gürsoy, admitted that the Nigerian construction industry was growing.

“The construction sector’s contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is four per cent in the country. So that makes the event very crucial in terms for us as the event organiser, to create that platform for international companies to come to the country and create business opportunities, collaborations between the contractors, consultants, the whole construction value chain in the country, in Nigeria,” she said.

Describing the Nigerian market in construction, Executive Vice President of DMG Events, Ben Greenish said Nigeria has a vast opportunity.

“It’s a really important market for Nigeria because construction brings jobs, it brings education, it brings wealth. So you have a population of 190 million is an enormous number and that’s a very youthful population.

“So not only do they need buildings to go to school in, they need an industry that will employ them afterwards. So I think construction on so many parts is such an important player for any country, as a key driver of jobs and economic growth,” he said.