NIOB to partner Lafarge on alternative building materials research

The Nigerian Institute of Building, (NIOB) has canvassed for collaborative research and production of alternative building materials.

The NIOB President, Kunle Awobodu, made this submission when he led a delegation on a courtesy visit to Lafarge Plc in Lagos, noting that they are exploring ways to collaborate and promote mutually beneficial goals for the two organizations and create positive impact on the Nigerian construction industry.

Awobodu disclosed that the NIOB had a large reservoir of research resources, efforts and outputs, stressing that some builders were continuously researching locally available materials that did not produce inferior performance results to the conventional ones.

He cited one of such areas of research to be the use of ‘pozzolana’, rice husk ash and corn cob ash as a partial replacement for cement.

He added that NIOB has equally started preconstruction activities on a world class materials research centre at the Federal Capital Territory.

The president further stated that beyond publicising the research efforts and outputs of researchers in building materials, the utilisation of the research outputs in the production of cement would increase affordability as well as drive costs down.

He explained that by the law of large numbers, it would also help the profitability and bottom line of manufacturers making it a win-win to all stakeholders and the society at large.

The Chairman of NIOB Research and Development Committee, Prof. Kolapo Eleka, pointed out that the development of Nigerian standards for such pozzolanic cement and other locally available materials were one of the steps necessary in manufacturing and utilisation.

On his part, the Chairman of Association of Builders in Academia, Prof. Martin Dada, stated that using some of the alternative materials would promote profitability, adding that it would take efforts and resources to relocate the waste generated from a building demolished.

The Country Chief Executive Officer of Larfarge Plc, Khaled El Dokani, with his team which includes the Commercial Director, Gbenga Onimowo and the Head, Technical Products and Innovation, Femi Yusuff, acknowledged the NIOB’s proposal.

El Dokani cited the issue of reuse of items recovered from demolished or deconstructed buildings, which will help in promoting sustainability and reduction of carbon footprint.