SON plans collaboration with CORBON to end building collapse

In a bid to check building collapse in the country, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has entered into partnership with the Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria (CORBON) to end the menace.

The agreement was reached recently during a courtesy visit of the Council officials led by the Chairman, Professor Kabir Bala to the SON’s Director General, Osita Aboloma and his management in Abuja.

Investigation revealed that the agency’s readiness to cooperate with CORBON, saying that environmental issues and resource management needed to be brought to the forefront in the building and construction sector.

According to SON’s Director General, the renewed collaboration towards institutionalizing standards in the construction sector was to stem the tide of building collapse and structural failures throughout the nation.

The SON boss represented by a Director, Richard Agu, noted that the cooperation of the two organisations had helped in bringing issues and dangers of building collapse to the forefront of public discourse.

SON, according to him, would be disposed to supporting the forthcoming 2018 builders congress through delivery of technical papers, exhibition of standards, among others.
Agu proposed a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two organisations to leverage on the extensive regulatory powers in the new SON Act 14 of 2015 in the overall interest of the nation and her citizens.

He admonished CORBON members and institutions to take advantage of SON capabilities in management systems certification of their services in quality and environment, among others.

Contributing, Director of Operations, SON, Felix Nyado, disclosed that all State offices have mobile sandcrete block testing machines for quality assurance.

He advised CORBON to also key into knowledge-sharing through more active participation in the national mirror committee for development of international standards under the auspices of the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) activities relating to the building sector and environmental sustainability.

On his part, Bala who is also the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Administration, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, called for high quality values at all levels by developing and implementing more technical standards for production processes in the building and construction sector.
He called for closer monitoring, control and enforcement of quality of materials through the establishment of more materials testing laboratories across the country.

“CORBON is desirous of partnering with SON in establishment and management of a database of Physical Building Resources that will provide information on location and availability of standard materials to assist builders in accessing the right materials,” he said.

According to him, the council has developed a set of standards to enable a professional builder to effectively administer the construction processes within budget limits, time, and specified quality.

The CORBON Chairman stated that the Building Production Management Standards which are to ensure the success of building production process are segmented into construction, project quality management, health and safety programmes and construction methodology.