The National Association of Block Moulders of Nigeria (NABMAN) on Tuesday urged Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu to engage its members in the execution of state-owned projects.
Mr Adebola Asela, the Chairman, Igbe-Elepe Unit, made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) after the completion of an eight-week intensive training on block moulding in Ikorodu.
He said their participation would reduce the cases of building collapse in the state to the barest minimum.
“Building collapse has been a major challenge in the country, especially, in Lagos State as a result of using sub-standard and bad blocks produced by quacks.
“Our members have gone through an intensive training and international best practices on how to mould good blocks.
“What we are expecting now is for the Lagos State Government to engage us in the area of block moulding in any state projects to showcase the experiences our members had learnt from the training,” he said.
He said that many of their members previously were fond of moulding their blocks in such a way that was not in tandem with international best practices.
However, the training had made us to realise that such blocks might not be able to stand the test of time.
He urged his members to key into the new techniques of moulding blocks and encourage others who were players in the industry to do same in order to avert perennial building collapse in the state and in Nigeria at large.
He commended the state government for considering artisans for capacity building scheme and the management staff of the school for their leadership roles during the training.
“Now, we understand that bad blocks are a major cause to building collapse.
“And now, they have taught us new techniques and this will go a long way to avert building collapse and also safe lives,” he said.
NAN reports that the Lagos State Ministry of Wealth and Employment in collaboration with the Lagos State Technical and Vocational Education Board (LASTVEB) recently conducted a capacity building scheme for tradesmen and artisans.
During the training, artisans were trained on different vocational skills such as: computer, entrepreneurship, welding, ICT and block moulding .
