Most Nigerians, especially real estate developers and home builders, are groaning under challenge of inadequate artisans/craftsmen.
Investigation by Nigerian Tribune showed that apart from the scarcity of these artisans/ tradesmen, those that are available, except few, are not interested in their jobs, hence the attendant shoddy jobs in the housing industry.
The artisans/ craftsmen comprise bricklayers, carpenters, plumbers, tilers, electricians and iron benders, among others.
While many Nigerians are expressing worry over the situation, few people that spoke with our correspdent shared their harrowing experiences.
Speaking, Mrs Doris Olagun, resident of Lekki phase, said she looked for a plumber for over two months to help fix wash-hand basin in her kitchen, but couldn’t find any.
When she eventually found one, Olagun said the young man did shoddy job to the extent that the washhand basin started leaking water two weeks after.
Another person, Mr. Jacob Daniel, a clergy, said that the carpenter that did the roofing of his church did a very bad job to the extent that the entire auditorium was flooded one week later after a downpour.
According to him, he took the engagement of another carpenter, who was more experienced to fix the roof competently.
Mr Tayo Ojo, a building owner in Ajah, said that he had to pull the entire walls down and rebuilt them, due to shoddy jobs by the bricklayers.
He expressed worry over the scarcity of experiences artisans/craftsmen in the industry, saying that something must be down about this before it’s too late.
One of the artisans, a bricklayer said that poor renumeration in the industry has discouraged the young ones interested in training as bricklayers or carpenters.
Expressing disgust over the situation, former President of the Nigeria Institute of Building (NIOB), Mr. Chucks Omeife, warned that except something is done and the trend of artisans’ scarcity is urgently reversed, the problem ahead will be unsurmounted.
He mentioned that the concurrent issue of jappa – migration as it is fondly called, has come to worsened an already bad situation.
Despite all the efforts of government to address the situation in the past, he said that the problem has refused to abate.
He said:”At the moment, there are lots of initiatives that have been put in place by successive government which the current government has also been following up with, despite all the efforts the problem is still here with us.
“The SURE-P programme and NVQF, SUPA, are some of the government initiatives which are well thought through. Not tying the end from the beginning.”
According to Omeife, the skewed national renumeration system in the country, which is heavy at the top and miserable at the bottom, has been a source of discouragement for anyone to encourage their wards to be trained as an artisan or craftsman.
According to him, various government initiatives have not been well thought through from the beginning to the end.
“The country is dotted with training centres for artisans and other trades designed and implemented through SURE-P programme was to empower people with different skills with the expectation that after the training they can set up small scale business based on the training they have received. Unfortunately most of the trainees after graduation do not follow up on the expectation of the programme because of so many reasons,” he said.
Another built environment expert, Olufemi Oyedele, said the dearth of quality and experienced artisans in the real estate sector has been a major concern to many stakeholders since over two decades.
“The gap was only being filled by the artisans and tradesmen from Republique du Benin and Togo in the past. But due to our weak naira against cefa, the foreign artisans and tradesmen are no more coming into Nigeria to work,” he said.
The few experienced artisans available, he said have been relocating to the United Kingdom,United States of America and Germany due to the need of tradesmen in these countries.
The danger this portends for Nigeria’s housing/real estate sector, he said would be production of substandard houses and shortage of quality and experienced artisans and tradesmen in the industry.
“The danger to the economy at large is that the scale of demand and supply of quality and experienced artisans and tradesmen is skewed towards the demand side.
“The few quality and experienced artisans and tradesmen will increase their price because of the higher demand for them.
“Clients that cannot afford the price of these quality and experienced artisans and tradesmen will opt for cheaper artisans and tradesmen.
“These workmen will produce substandard houses which will result in building collapse.”
Oyedele urged Nigerian government to invest in technical schools for the training of artisans and tradesmen, and artisans and tradesmen apprenticeship program in which youths will be posted into construction companies for training and federal government will pay their allowances while on training.
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