Reps adopt 42.5mpa as standard cement grade

By Umar Muhammad Puma

The House of Representatives has recommended 42.5mpa grade cement as the contry’s standard for construction works in, saying it is less susceptible to misapplication.

Adopting the report of the House ad-hoc committee that investigated the incidence of collapsed buildings in the country, chairman of the committee, Rep Yakubu Dogara (APC Bauchi), urged that SON’s governing council should ensure that all cement manufacturers in Nigeria retool

and upgrade their production lines to start producing the 42.5mpa grade within a reasonable time considering the cost of social dislocation.

They further recommended that the federal government should create a cement fund from contributions of N10 per 50kg bag of cement produced in Nigeria and N20 only per 50kg of cement imported into Nigeria for the establishment of state-of-the-art laboratories in all the geo-political zones within the period of three years. Adding that the fund should be managed by a task force to be set up by SON, the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN),

the Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria (CORBON) and the Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB).

The lawmakers also recommended that the passage of the National Building Code Bill should be expedited and strictly enforced when passed into law to check quackery, use of substandard building

materials and to serve as a tool for the regulation of the informal downstream sector of the industry.

Other recommendations are that “all cement packages must clearly and boldly indicate their grades, uses and expiry dates with tamper proofing on the packages to guard against repackaging by middlemen; SON should ensure that all cement distributions withdraw expired cement from their warehouses and markets and destroy them.” While urging the government to take immediate steps to establish a cement and concrete institute, as is the case in many jurisdictions,

the House said government should also revive all technical schools across the country and establish new ones to improve on the pool of qualified artisans and generate skilled as well semi-skilled labour.

It said government should also set up a National Quality Assurance Programme, using designated agencies and some professional bodies to regularly test samples of cement produced before they are sold in the open market.