Naira Fall Against Other Currencies Makes Equipment Purchase Nightmare, Says FOCI 

Bennett Oghifo

The Federation of Construction Industry (FOCI), an umbrella body for construction companies in Nigeria, has said building infrastructure in the country is becoming more challenging with the mindless fall of the Naira against other currencies, which is making the procurement of construction equipment cumbersome.

The new President of FOCI, Chief Vincent Barrah stated this during his investiture as President and Chairman of Council at the 66th Annual General Meeting of FOCI in Abuja, recently.

Barrah said, “The free-fall of the Naira against other currencies which has made purchase of construction equipment almost a nightmare.

“This situation, therefore, affects the fate of construction projects and activities in the country, critically disrupting contract execution, cash flows and the economics of job creation tied to these ongoing projects.”   

According to him, “We have issues like the recent hyper inflationary trend on the basic prices of key construction resources in the country which has become a great concern for our members. This has made the current allowance for variation of prices (VOP) of 5 per cent in ongoing projects meaningless.”

He called for deliberate actions to tackle the challenges in the construction industry.

Discussing the near absence of skilled artisans in the country, the immediate past President of FOCI, Engr Nasiru Dantata, said training artisans in the sector would reduce the need to employ labour from outside the country.

Dantata said FOCI established a skills academy in Abuja and had been partnering stakeholders to train artisans in latest skills so as to acquire the competencies to take up jobs in the sector, adding that this would resolve the challenge. 

He said, “We will continue to support the training of artisans in the industry. What this does is that it reduces the need to employ labour, because as a country of more than 200 million estimated population, there’s no reason to import basic labour that we can train locally. So, our member companies are concentrating on doing that.

“We’ll continue to provide infrastructure that is long lasting to Nigeria that you need little to repair and that will last long.”