Building collapse: CORBON calls for review of builders’ registration Act

The Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria (CORBON) has urged the Federal Government to review the Builders Registration Act 2004 due to the incessant building collapse in the country.

CORBON Chairman, Dr. Samson Opaluwa, who made the call at the 23rd Induction Ceremony for the newly registered builders for the construction industry in Abuja, noted that the practice of building is a global industry, and the council is working diligently to ensure that standards align with current international best practices. About 420 newly registered builders were inducted into its fold.

Opaluwa expressed the council’s commitment to enhance the quality of building practices, thereby ensuring public safety in buildings and emphasised the need to transform the construction landscape in the country.

As part of its commitment to ensuring adherence to standard practices, he said the council has instituted measures to ensure that builders comply with the law, national building codes, and adopt international best practices.

He said, “This legislative endeavour seeks to enhance regulatory capabilities, curb quackery and malpractice in the building industry, and ensure only qualified and competent professionals contribute to the growth of the sector.”

The year 2023 recorded a remarkable milestone having registered about 800 new builders, which is the largest within a calendar year since the inception of the profession in 1989. “We have commenced the registration of qualified builders in the diaspora,” Opaluwa said.

Opaluwa emphasised that the increase in the number was not a result of lowered standards, but rather a testament to the growth of the profession and its increasing importance in the country’s economy.

In his charge to the inductees, CORBON Registrar, Adetunji Adeniran, implored the newly registered builders to show professionalism in their practice.

He stated that their induction symbolised a significant elevation in the skill level required for the practice of building in the country. Adeniran said: “As builders, you will indeed stand before the influential and powerful as professionals of repute. I charge you to be diligent, to demonstrate skillfulness, good judgment, and polite behaviour.”

In their remarks, the Ebonyi State governor, Francis Nwufiri and his Plateau State counterpart, Governor Caleb Mutfwang, decried the proliferation of quacks in the building and construction industry, stressing that their activities are denting the image of the profession with the attendant cases of building collapse across the country.

Nwifiru, who was represented by his Deputy, Princess Patricia Obela Mutfwang by his Commissioner for Works, Bulus Lekshak, stressed the need to urgently address the high rate of building collapse in the country.