‘Training professionals on materials use aimed to save cost for builders’

QMB Builders Mart, a building materials marketing and sales company, says the training of built environment professionals on proper use or application of building materials and home equipment is aimed to save building and maintenance cost for people building houses for residential, commercial and industrial purposes.

At the maiden edition of Stakeholders Annual Continuous Professional Development Seminar organised by the company recently, architects, engineers, mechanical and electrical consultants, developers, builders and contractors received instructional guidance on specifications, application and installation of building materials.

The company’s foreign partners and manufacturers who facilitated the programme put the professionals through technical details, specifications, method statement, design feedback and cost effectiveness of their products such as WCs, bath tubs, wash basins, kitchen equipment, fittings, etc.

“I am very happy that we are having this kind of thing in Nigeria which is very common in advanced economies of the world. It helps us a lot by bringing us closer to the manufacturers. We get to know what is available elsewhere. It helps us in our design, broadens our knowledge and specifications of products”, said Olumide Mesioye, an architect who spoke to BusinessDay on the sideline of the seminar.

Continuing, Mesioye said, “this kind of programme broadens our knowledge and enables us to know what is new in the market so that we can incorporate same into our designs. As soon as we know what is available, we inform our clients because a lot of them don’t know what is new in the market. By so doing, we are saving cost for our clients”.

He noted that ignorance costs some clients a lot of money, explaining that in some restaurants or airports, their WCs don’t last because, unknowingly, they use domestic instead of commercial products, adding that some people just walk into the market and buy what is available without knowing the different purposes they serve. And this cuts across all brands of equipment including WCs, washing machine, oven, gas cooker, etc.

“Knowing the right equipment to install in any given house—residential or commercial—saves costs, helps maintenance and elongates the lifespan of the equipment. Doing this might be expensive in the short term, but in the long run, it is cheap because maintenance cost is reduced”, he said.

Jaime Quintana, the Export Manager of Gala—manufacturers of bathroom equipment, WCs, wash basins, showers, etc— said in an interview that the training seminar was important to the professionals as much as it was to them as manufacturers because when a quality material is produced but used wrongly, it makes non-sense of the product.

“Gala is the leading bathroom equipment manufacturer worldwide”, he said, adding, “in terms of quality, our products are of very high standard; we offer guarantees for our products up to five years; we do this because we are sure of what we are offering”, he said.

He disclosed that Gala had been in the Nigerian market for many years. “This market has great potential. It is the leading market in Africa. There are opportunities in this market and we want to grow it. We have very good distribution network in North African countries like Morocco, Tunis, Libya etc, but in Sub Saharan Africa, Nigeria is our main market”, he said.

CHUKA UROKO