By Angela Atabo

The Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria (CORBON) has forged a strategic partnership with the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) to strengthen enforcement of construction standards.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the two building regulators on Thursday in Abuja aimed at addressing building collapse and other systemic challenges plaguing Nigeria’s construction industry.

Speaking during the signing ceremony, the Chairman of CORBON, Samson  Opaluwah, said the collaboration underscored a shared commitment by the two bodies to address the systemic challenges in the building sector.

“This signposts a milestone in our joint endeavour to foster professional excellence, collaborative delivery and the optimisation of human resources in the built environment in Nigeria.

“This MoU lays a foundation for the forging of a strong partnership for mutual collaboration, knowledge exchange, capacity building and joint delivery of national development outcomes by builders and engineers in related fields.

“Infrastructure development and management which is the bedrock of modern civilisation requires that every nation optimises their resources in their delivery especially the human capital component which our members represent.

“Through our joint efforts, we shall encourage best practices and strive towards improved project management, quality delivery and innovative practices in the nation’s building and engineering industry,” he said.

According to Opaluwah, the partnership also aimed at maintaining the highest levels of professionalism and the deployment of best expertise in the development and management of Nigeria’s infrastructures.

He listed some benefits of the MOU to include: mutual understanding and appreciation of specific and special expertise and boundaries and enhanced capacity building for registrants to improve professional expertise.

The benefits also included, sharing of best practices and innovations in the building and engineering industry; improved regulation, monitoring of standards, increased opportunities for collaboration in research, innovation and development of efficient and effective infrastructure.

He commended COREN for the willingness to collaborate towards mutual growth, rather than competition and confrontation.

On his part, the COREN President, Prof. Sadiq Abubakar, said the council had existed for over 53 years and saddled with the responsibilities of regulating engineering in Nigeria among others.

“The area we are addressing today is the construction industry, where we have several regulators. CORBON and COREN are just two of the seven regulators in the industry.

“We innovatively created FORBEN, the Forum for Regulators in the Built Environment of Nigeria for effective collaboration.

“This is because if we are going to become competitors, and be confronting ourselves, Nigeria is going to lose.

“While we are bickering and competing, we are going to definitely leave regulatory gaps that people will exploit,” he said.

Abubakar said that building collapse has become a monster, and urged CORBON to join hands with COREN to bridge regulatory gaps. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Rotimi Ijikanmi