FG Urged to Save Construction Sector from Imminent Collapse

Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia

With the spiralling price of cement and other  building materials, the federal government has been urged to intervene without delay to save the building/construction sector of the economy from total collapse.
The President of Cosmo Base Consortium, Benson Ezem made the call in a chat with THISDAY in Umuahia, noting that the building/construction sector was experiencing immense strain.

Ezem, who is an architect and development consultant, noted that the continuous increase in import duties and cost of clearing imported goods was having a spiralling effect on prices of imported goods thereby affecting the building industry.
“The government should address increasing cost of building materials especially cement by engaging with the manufacturers and addressing their immediate needs especially the foreign exchange demand, power and diesel,” he said.

The Cosmo Base Consortium president stressed the need to keep the building/construction sector alive, warning that allowing it to shut down would be counter productive as jobs would be lost while government would lose revenue accruing from the sector.
The development consultant pointed out that  the plan by the Bola Tinubu administration to build over 2,000 housing units per each of selected 12 states across the six geopolitical zones could be jeopardised by rising cost of building materials.

He said that government should engender a robust, sustainable housing programme by putting together “a workable framework for housing provision and allow the private sector participation”.
Ezem counselled : “Our economic policy should be such that will address the suffering of the people, hence government should not hesitate to intervene with appropriate policy guidelines where necessary.
“The time now calls for ingenuity in the management of our economy; it should not be business as usual if we are to come out of the distress we are in this country.”

As a way to ease stress on the economy, the building/construction expert said that government should ban foreign trips and all medical tourism by any government officials, elected and appointed.
He also advised government to strictly monitor budget release for items budgeted, adding that “our monitoring and implementation department under the president should be more proactive to ensure the performance of our bloated budget”.

On the move by the National Assembly to return Nigeria to parliamentary system of government, Ezem said that it is a step in the right direction, harping on the advantages it has over the current presidential system.
“I want to commend the 60 House of Representatives members pushing for the parliamentary system of governance in the light of the economic hardship Nigeria is going through.

“It is time we start looking at ways of cutting down on cost of governance. The executive should be more intentional in cutting costs by reduction in the number of appointments and paraphernalia of office,” he said.