Dry construction will help reduce housing deficit —Developers

Real estate developers are of the opinion that the dry construction method of building will help reduce the housing deficit in the country.

According to the Managing Director, UACN Property Development Company Limited, Mr. Hakeem Ogunniran, the built environment is plagued by three fundamental issues of land titling, funding and construction methodology.

“Most of us still construct in the traditional way and it will be impossible to meet the housing gap if we continue to build in the traditional way,” he said.

Ogunniran and others, who spoke at the unveiling of Nigerite Limited’s Kalsi, a dry construction system, said the building solution would help in the provision of affordable houses in the country.

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The President, African Union of Architects, Mr. Tokunbo Omisore, said it would help reduce poverty by providing solutions to housing problems.

The Managing Director, Nigerite Limited, Mr. Frank LeBris, said that as a prominent and active player in the built industry over the past five decades, the company owed the country a duty to champion economic and technological innovations that it had experienced in the developed world through the network of its parent company, Etex.

He said, “We have carefully observed our environment and come to the conclusion that we do not have to wait for tomorrow to bring this avant-garde technology to Nigeria. Even though, the introduction of this technology has caused us a lot of money in terms of investment in new factory lines and equipment as well as additional personnel, we believe that this is just one of the few things we can do to contribute to the economic and technological upgrade of Nigeria.

“Among other things, Kalsi dry construction system is the future of building technology. Since we cannot run away from tomorrow, why not bring tomorrow to today if we have the means. The world over, dry construction is gaining the ground.”

LeBris stated that the system was developed to augment the efforts to cover up the housing deficit in the country.

“It is common knowledge that housing deficit in Nigeria today is close to 20 million; this solution is being introduced as one of the fastest means of bridging this gap since it takes pretty few number of days to construct from start to finish. It ensures cleaner environment at construction sites and thus points to our avowed commitment to environment friendliness and it costs less in the final analysis,” he said.

LeBris added that while the system was not a replacement for the traditional method of brick and mortar, it was cheaper and a quicker means of constructing a building.

According to the Marketing Manager, Africa, Etex Group, Mr. Juan Lugo, the system is a response to the call for energy efficiency in building construction as well as a fast growing technology all over the world.

The Head, Dry Construction Business Unit, Nigerite, Mr. Adewale Ogungbe, said the system had high impact and fire resistant.

“Whatever an architect conceives in terms of design, Kalsi can achieve,” he said.

According to Ogungbe, Kalsi boards are manufactured from cement, quartz, cellulose, natural calcium silicate and water, and processed under high pressure and temperature for durability and dimensional stability.

Credit: Punchng

Contractors Begin $1.65bn Construction Works On Lekki Port

Contractors Begin $1.65bn Construction Works On Lekki Port

Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise (LPLE) has issued the Notice-to-Proceed to its engineering procurement and construction (EPC) contractor to commence full construction activities for the Lekki Deep Seaport situated within the Lagos Free Trade Zone in the Ibeju-Lekki area of Lagos State.
This is a major milestone on the project that marks the beginning of the 41-month construction period for the largest maritime project in Nigeria.
According to the company, this phase of the project would cost a total of $1.65 billion and is scheduled to be operational in 2019.
The project will be the deepest sea port in the sub-Saharan Africa with a draft depth of 16.5 meters. The EPC contractors are a subsidiary of the China Harbour Engineering Company, one of the largest maritime contractors in the world, the China Harbour Engineering LFTZ Enterprise (CHELE).
The managing director of LPLE, Mr Haresh Aswani, said at a brief ceremony for the Notice-to-Proceed in Lagos that the total contract value for construction of all marine and land-side infrastructure for the port is $792 million. He said that the LPLE flagged off the construction contract yesterday by releasing an advance payment to the CHELE for them to commence full construction on the project.
“Once ready, the port facility, with its state-of-the-art infrastructure, would be able to handle post-Panamax container vessels of up to 10,000 TEUs (20ft equivalent unit containers) capacity. The port will commence its operations with an annual throughput capacity of 1.5 million TEUs and shall quickly ramp it up to 2.7 million TEUs. In addition, when completed, the Lekki Port will be equipped to handle around 16.7 million MT liquid cargo and 4.0 million MT dry bulk cargo annually,” he said.
The Lekki deep port, in addition to solving the long-standing congestion problem at existing ports, is expected to create an enabling environment and spur massive investments along the Lagos Free Trade Zone corridor and will have a direct positive impact on the overall Nigerian economy. The port is also expected to generate direct and induced employment for approximately 170,000 persons and will have an economic impact of $361 billion over the concession period.
“This is going to be a game-changer and we are honoured to be part of this promise. We are thankful to the Federal Government of Nigeria and its agencies, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Lagos State Government for their support as we look forward to this exciting partnership. We, especially, acknowledge the unflinching support extended by Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola through his promise to expand the connecting road infrastructure between port site and hinterland for smooth operations,” Aswani said.
In his remarks, the managing director of the NPA, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Ado Bayero, said, “We are today witnessing another milestone in the development of the Lekki Deep Seaport. The issuance of the Notice-to-Proceed for the construction is a quantum leap, signifying our resolve to tap into the hitherto huge market occasioned by a port capacity gap in Nigeria.
“As a port authority, we see potential for growth and strive to make it a reality at all times. A port with a depth of 16.5metres will allow bigger vessels to berth and the port will enable our ports to be enormously competitive due to economy of scale and will have significant positive macro economic impact on Nigeria in terms of employment, taxes and royalties.
“As we began the consummation of our strategic alliance with the promoters of this project and look towards a bright future, we assure you that the NPA will not waver in its continued support for the project.”

Courtesy; Leadershipng 

Five injured as church collapses in Kogi

No fewer than five people were injured on Thursday when an ongoing 10,000 sitting capacity cathedral project of the Immaculate Catholic Cathedral Church in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, collapsed.

The Cathedral Administrator, Rev. Anthony Akande, said the accident happened when the workers were on a break.

He said he was thankful to God that no life was lost.

He explained that eight engineers were supervising the project, adding that a team of visiting engineers of the church from Abuja last week gave a pass mark to the work already done.

He said the collapse of the building was unfortunate and surprising.

The Kogi State deputy Governor, Mr. Yomi Awoniyi, who was at the site of the incident, ordered that further work on the project be stopped pending the submission of a report by the committee set up by the government to establish the immediate cause of the collapse.

He added that the collapse of the building was unfortunate.

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He said, “The collapse could have been caused by several factors, which would be unraveled at the end of the committee’s probe.”

Awoniyi urged the committee , which was made up of experts from the state government, and who would work with the residents to speed up investigation.

He stated that the submission of the report would assist in preventing a recurrence.

He also sympathised with the injured victims and the church.

Credit: PUNCH.

High Construction Cost, Unskilled Labour Bane Of Affordable Housing

High Construction Cost, Unskilled Labour Bane Of Affordable Housing

Housing is one of the most important human needs. The sector, according to experts could be a prime driver of socio-economic development in terms of employment creation if its potentials are fully harnessed.
In Nigeria, the federal government is saddled with the provision of housing for over 160 million Nigerians. The country is estimated to have a housing deficit that ranges between 16 to 17 million. The huge deficit exist because of challenges plaguing the sector such as high cost of buying land and houses; the low and no-income earners are the highest hit by this factor, poor mortgage system, non availability of lands, double taxation, difficulty in getting titles, cost of cement, lack of trained artisans, to mention a few.
Some developers over the years have constantly cried over the non availability of land and lack of fund to carry out a desired project. Most times getting mortgages is cumbersome so some resort to personal funding which may not be much. Other means fund were raised where through Joint Venture Partnership (JVP). Joint venture partnership is collaboration between real estate firms and land owners. In the process the land is given to the developer by the JVP as their equity contribution to mass housing development. As such the cost is pushed to the end user making it difficult for the low and no-income earner to own a house. Others that sort operate the joint venture partnership are left with no option than to buy land at very high rate making the end cost very unrealistic for the average Nigerian.
Reaffirming the difficulty presently experienced in the provision of affordable housing, the minister of housing Mrs, Akon Eyakenyi recently stated that to build a house in Nigeria is a very expensive task due to the high cost of building materials, prevalence of unskilled labour, unnecessary bureaucratic bottlenecks and high cost of provision of enabling infrastructure. She noted that affordable housing cannot be achieved without a drastic reduction in the cost of housing construction and other associated costs which invariably determine the selling price. “Consequently, for affordability to thrive, emphasis must shift to reducing the cost of housing construction in order to promote access to affordable homes to the vulnerable segment of our national population,” She added.

Source: Leadership news