The President of the Nigerian Institute of Architects, Enyi Ben-Eboh, has said that the calls for more laws and regulations to tackle incessant building collapse may not be the best solution.
This was as he noted that a solid partnership between the government and private sector would boost the capacity of officers involved in the building process.
Ben-Eboh made this known while speaking with our correspondent at the just concluded NIA-INFRADCO conference in Abuja.
He said a lot of development issues were domiciled in the states because of the lack of capacity to enforce and implement existing laws and regulations.
He said, “Regarding the regulations, it is not so much a problem of lack of laws, but capacity to implement and enforce those laws. A lot of development issues are domiciled in the states and a lot of those states don’t have the capacity in terms of manpower to be able to monitor construction sites.
“Again, the issue of building code which further strengthens the processes, a lot of the states have not domesticated it and so, in terms of the processes, the states have not adopted them to be able to solve this problem.
“The best solution for us as an institute is to seek collaborations between the government and professional associations so that we can serve as another arm of checking these things using the private sector.”
Ben-Eboh added, “When someone has not designed a two-storey building but gets approval for the design of 10-storey, for instance, of course, he doesn’t have the capacity.
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