By ANDREW OJIEZEL
Housing challenges facing Nigerians living in rural areas and city slums dominated discussions at the 2017 Nigerian building and road institute (NIBRRI) International Conference on Tuesday.
The Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, who declared the conference open decried the enormous housing challenges being faced by Nigerian in providing decent, efficient but cheap accommodation for themselves and members of their families.
Speaking on the theme: “Emerging Materials and Technologies for Sustainable Building and Road Infrastructure,” the minister noted that the Institute’s research should concentrate on building materials and methods that could help Nigeria have access to a decent accommodation.
“The training of artisans plays a direct role towards mitigating the challenges of capital flight. It is disheartening that an estimated one million artisanal labour are imported from other countries like Togo, Benin Republic, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, China and Korea.”
Dr.Onu also spoke against the use of over $6 billion on benefits annually, out of which $3 billion leaves the shores of the country through capital flight, thus putting the naira on additional pressure.