Lafarge equips block moulders with requisite skills to prevent building collapse

As part of efforts  at preventing cases of building collapse in the country, especially in Lagos state where the incident has been rampant in recent times, Lafarge Africa Plc has organized technical training for block moulders under the auspices of National Block Moulders Association of Nigeria (NABMON) with a view to equipping them with requisite skills.

A technical workshop, which was conducted by Lafarge Africa engineers and technicians in civil and structural engineering and other experts in the building industry for over 200 block makers drawn from Ikotun in Alimosho local government area of Lagos recently, centred on batching, mixing, moulding, curing, staking and maturity of sandcrete blocks.

Speaking at the training session, Mike Awannayah, the company’s general manager, business transformation, said the workshop was conducted for block moulders to deepen existing partnership between Lafarge and NABMON in order to join hands to prevent building collapse.

Awannayah revealed that the training, which was designed to empower block makers on the requisite skills needed to mould sandcrete blocks in accordance with acceptable standards internationally, explaining that the motive behind the workshop organised for block makers was to ensure that the cement products produced by Lafarge Africa was used professionally.

“It’s a programme we do throughout the whole year; we will keep it running as part of our business model. It is part of what we do in business; we believe that the way we do business is to ensure that products are used in the right way by professionals, and that will also help in preventing building collapse.”

Earlier, Rasheed Adebowale, president of NABMON, revealed that the association was already working with the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) on the quality of sandrete blocks produced and had taken some samples of the products for Laboratory examinations in order to ensure there was standardization in the process of sandrete blocks moulding and usage.

“SON has taken series of texts throughout the zones, but we are waiting for the results on the number of blocks we are going to produce with a bag of cement. We have been doing some training since last year and we have told our members to produce 35 blocks from one bag of cement; that the maximum number of blocks to produce should not be more than 35”, he added.

RAZAQ AYINLA