Chairman Mararaba building material market; Cosmas Agbo
By Mimidoo Patrick
Mararaba Building Materials Traders Association (MBMTA), an affiliate of the National Association of Nigerian Traders (NANTs), incorporated over two decades ago has been contributing greatly to its host community, Maraba and to the development of Nasarawa State as a whole. Apart from supplying the much needed materials for housing, members of the association have been paying taxes which have shored up the revenue of Nasarawa State. It is this association that has attracted huge development to Maraba, a sprawling settlement on the fringe of the capital city, Abuja. By MBMTA’s activities commercial banks and other business bodies have lined up the ever busy Maraba-Keffi highway. But the traders are not without lamentation. They are seemingly neglected by the Nasarawa state government as the building materials market is constantly invaded by storm waters once there is rainfall. The traders now build drainage on their own. It could be better with government’s intervention. The Chairman of MBMTA, Mr Cosmas Agbo in this interview with Viewpoint Housing News says Nigeria’s housing sector will be turned around only if cost of building materials is reduced, Ajaokuta Steel Company is revived and the incidence of building collapse is tackled.
Viewpoint: Developers have attributed the failure to provide affordable housing to high cost of building materials. Why can’t the cost of building materials be low?
Agbo: Well, as a businessman who wants to make profit, I would say government is not sincere with its policy because you don’t expect a businessman like me to import these materials at a very high rate and sell below the cost price.
Don’t forget that building materials are imported except cement and a few others. So it is government that has the power to reduce the cost of building materials by bringing down the high import duty on building materials.
They can do this by reviving the Ajaokuta steel plant so that we can manufacture materials like rods here on reduced cost.
Secondly, government should come up with polices that would ensure that Nigerians patronize made-in-Nigeria goods. Nigeria is rich with human and mineral resources but bad polices and corruption have kept us where we are. Take for instance, the Ajaokuta steel that has been abandoned for decades now, those raw materials can be transformed into finished products that can be used to reduce the cost of building materials.
Viewpoint: Quite often, cases of building collapse are attributed to low quality building materials. What is your advice to government toward tackling this?
Agbo: My advice to the new administration is to grant waivers to importers of building materials, reduce import duty and exchange rate. These are the only ways that government can address the high cost of building materials and also reduce the incidence of building collapse.
Otherwise we will only be deceiving ourselves. Before now, exchange rate was between N156 and N160 to the dollar but we are presently getting it at N300 and of course, you know that all this contributes to the high cost of building materials.
Viewpoint: There are increasing cases of fire outbreaks in Nigeria and some have attributed these to sub-standard building materials. How would you react to this?
Agbo: Yes, fire outbreak occurs as a result of substandard electrical building materials but my take is that government has to map out strategies on how to boost local materials. For instance, Nigerian cables are the best globally but the challenge is that they are very expensive and this is because of the cost of production.
We lack social amenities like electricity, roads and what have you, so when all this is considered, the cost of production becomes higher than the imported ones so you find Nigerians buying imported ones which are cheaper and affordable not minding the risk involved.
Viewpoint: Isn’t the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) doing enough in terms of regulation?
Agbo: Yes, SON is doing its best but we must understand that Nigeria is large and as such, the organisation has a limit to what they can do.
Viewpoint: How best do you think building collapse can be tackled in Nigeria?
Agbo: To holistically tackle the menace of building collapse in Nigeria, government should constitute a taskforce of professionals in the building industry who will go round to monitor and ensure that the specifications are followed to the letter.
I would also like to mention here that building collapse is not completely as a result of fake building materials as alleged by some developers but mostly because of corruption. For instance, a pillar that requires about five bags of cement and a sizable number of rods could be compromised to a lesser quantity just to save more money which could lead to the collapse of a building.
Viewpoint: Who is to blame for the influx of substandard products in the Nigerian market?
Agbo: There is nothing like substandard products. It is the quantity of materials used. For instance, when you are supposed to use 20mm gauge and you use 14mm, you have shortchanged the recommended quality and quantity. In Nigeria rods are still measured using internal standard. If a gauge is like 25mm and the recommended gauge to cast a pillar is 50mm, you can double it and it will still give you the required measurement.
On who is to blame on the influx of substandard products in Nigeria, I would say Immigration and Customs. They should be held accountable because they are the ones at the border and when they insist that 7mm rod will not enter the country and they are stringent about it, it will be out of the market.
Viewpoint: What is your advice to government?
Agbo: My advice is that government should strengthen the borders, they should reduce the interest rate for importers of building materials, they should also encourage local producers and create an enabling environment for investors.
Viewpoint: What are your expectations from the new Nasarawa State governor?
Agbo: Our expectation is that he will ensure that social amenities are provided especially in Karu Local Government Area because the revenue coming in from there. It is unfortunate that Mararaba does not have good roads and drainages.
