I read this post recently on independent newspaper and I was particularly attracted to the submissions of one of our own top construction advisers here on Nairaland (Engr. Osaz' with Monicker: jeftalene). You might also like it.


Nkasiobi Oluikpe

Lagos – As the recession in the country bites harder and government makes effort to wriggle the economy out of it, experts in the construction industry have advised that funding the construction industry, a leading driver of economic development, is the only way the country can get out of its present economic quagmire.

The construction industry is one industry that affects every aspect of the economy with every other sectors of the economy depending on its products and services to carry out their operations.

Ironically, in Nigeria, as against what is obtainable in other developed economies, the construction industry has not been given its pride of place as its contribution to the Gross Domestic Product is but a miserly fraction. A critical analysis of a single construction site shows well between 15 to 20 different career professionals, totally between 100 to 200 personnel engaged on the site.

Beyond those captured by the information board at construction sites, there are several others such as carpenters, welders, tillers, bricklayers, sand carriers, pure water sellers, drinks sellers, food vendors and lots more, whose lives are directed affected along the line.

The construction industry, for which the real estate sector is a segment, is an industry whose vibrancy trickles down to the lowest common man in an economy. This is why it has been recognized by experts in various professions as one the major enabler out of the current economic mess that the country is into.

[b]Substantiating this stance is the Managing Director/CEO of Heavens Contractors Limited, a structural engineering firm, Engr Osaz Enobakhare, who noted that funding infrastructure positively influences economic growth and development in any country and that a bulk of the infrastructural needs in Nigeria today fall within the construction and power sectors.

One very good way to fund heavy public infrastructure, he remarked is through concession. “But such Concession arrangement must be done in the right way to attract investors while not overburdening the rest of us (not the ‘hanky-panky’ type). If the right policy and strategic framework is put in place, we wouldn’t be complaining of paucity of funds. There are a thousand and one investors looking for decent concession plans to invest in.”

Responding to how the funds for the sponsorship will come, Osaz maintained that at a time when recession bites hard, it is the responsibility of the Economic Management Team to seek alternatives to providing such funds. ‘There is hardly anything like paucity of funds. If there is paucity at all, it is paucity of common sense’.

“Alternatively, funding road infrastructure for instance, can come through a form of road tax where a certain amount is charged on a litre of fuel say 1 Naira per litre so that for every litre of fuel sold, a Naira is kept to provide good roads,” the structural engineer said.[/b]

Read more at http://independentnig.com/construction-industry-oasis-in-desert-of-recession/#xp578kE5yobC1Agx.99