Curbing dearth of artisans in building sector

Nigeria with a large population and huge housing deficit, put at about 17 million, requires a good number of competent building artisans and craftsmen.But judging from the way other African countries’ artisans flood various building sites in the country raises the question of where our indigenous artisans and craftsmen have gone to.   Mr. David Lawrence […]

Nigeria with a large population and huge housing deficit, put at about 17 million, requires a good number of competent building artisans and craftsmen.
But judging from the way other African countries’ artisans flood various building sites in the country raises the question of where our indigenous artisans and craftsmen have gone to.   
Mr. David Lawrence told Daily Trust that the collapse of our vocational training centre and ill-equipped polytechnics is a major reason why the country is short of skilled manpower in the building sector.
A former Senator, Olabiyi Durojaiye, while speaking recently in Lagos said that the dearth of artisans has led to an estimated annual loss of N960m.
He explained that the amount is the value of jobs that should have been executed by Nigerian technicians and artisans, but which are done by their foreign counterparts operating in the country.
Also lending his voice to the toll the use of artisans from neigbouring African countries has taken on the nation`s economy,  the  Director of Public Procurement of Federal Ministry of Works,  Mr. Opaluwa,  while speaking  at a training workshop for construction artisans and craftsmen recently  in Abuja,  said  that there have been steady decline in the class of artisans in the country  because everybody has gone academic.
He noted that importing artisans from neighboring African countries to work on our construction sites belie the high rate of unemployment affecting the vast majority of Nigeria.
He therefore called for concerted efforts to re-energize our artisans for an improved building sector.
He said, “It is sad to see foreign technicians and artisans operating in the Nigeria construction sector and sadly even preferred to their local counterparts. Technological advancement has further stripped Nigerian artisans and technicians of their competitive edge. For instance, many auto mechanics are outdated as the apprenticeship system, through which they were trained, offers no mechanism for updating one’s knowledge in tandem with changing technology.  Existing technical colleges cannot help either because they are a cesspit of obsolete facilities, an emblem of poor government funding.”
On his part, the National President of Nigerian Institute of Builders, NIOB, Tunde Lisabi, said that adequate training of  indigenous artisans  and craftsmen will help  curb the  menace of building collapse that  have led to  loss of lives and properties.