Architects canvass local content law in housing, construction industry
Worried about the incursion and dominance of the Nigerian housing and construction industry by foreign firms and professionals, Nigerian practicing architects have canvassed the introduction of local content law into the industry to check this trend and protect the interest of local professionals.
The architects who spoke under the aegis of Association of Consulting Architects, Nigeria (ACAN), noted that with little or no regard for the law regulating foreign professionals practice in Nigeria, these foreign architects come into the country and start practicing without proper registration.
At a press conference preceding its 6th Annual General Meeting in Lagos recently, the immediate past president of the association, Fred Coker, said this display of impunity by the foreign professionals was being fuelled by lack of enforcement of relevant laws by the agents of government.
According to him, the law regulating foreign professionals coming to practice in Nigeria demands that such professionals must be duly and properly registered and must collaborate with the local professionals, architects for instance.
Coker stressed that government must introduce this local content law into this sector, noting that the law was performing very well in the oil and gas sector where foreigners and the locals worked within their bounds.
In his acceptance speech, Tayo Babalakin, the new president of the association, vowed that the new executive under his leadership would be committed to controlling and regulating the infiltration of foreign architects, explaining that he would pursue this through co-operation with relevant authorities to ensure that the welfare of members was given appropriate consideration.
“We will pursue national integration and co-operation with the Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA) and other associations in allied professions such as Association of Consulting Engineers, Nigeria (ACEN) and Association of Consulting Quantity Surveyors (ACQS); we will also collaborate with international sister associations,” he assured.
Pledging to build on the foundation laid by the past presidents of the association, Babalakin said he would develop the association’s newly established bookshop and library, adding that information dissemination would be pursued conscientiously through sustained circulation of their newsletter.
“The new exco will seek expansion of new frontiers nationally and globally by increasing our membership base by 100 percent from the present 60-member firms to 120 firms,” he pledged further.
On the widening housing demand-supply gap and the architects’ role in closing that gap, Coker emphasised that the housing problem in the country was much in design as it was in the cost of building materials, most of which are imported.
He said the solution to the problem was in the government coming up with a policy that would guarantee cheap and long-term funds in terms of mortgage, advising that the government should revisit the policies that gave birth to the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), the Primary Mortgage Institutions (PMIs) and the National Housing Fund (NHF).
By: Chuka Uroko