Dangote advocates collective action in curbing buildings’ collapse

The Chairman of Dangote Cement Plc, Alhaji Aliko Dangote over the weekend charged stakeholders in the building and construction industry to unite and decisively confront the menace of building collapse in the country, saying it was time a stop was put to it. Speaking through the Group Managing Director of the company, Devakumar Edwin, in Obajana, Kogi State during a sensitization tour of the cement plant by the leadership of the National Association of Block Moulders of Nigeria in the South West and Edo State, the business mogul said cases of structure failures had assumed a national embarrassment, therefore everyone concerned must fashion a way out.Continue...
According to him, it was one of the reasons why his company hosted the block moulders as critical stakeholders to the sensitization tour. Dangote also pointed out that the visit of the block moulders as well as the series of the sensitization workshops organized across the country for them would assist in having the block moulders realize the fact that there are different grades of cement for different purposes and for different applications as prescribed by the regulatory authority, the Standards Organization of Nigeria, SON. The industrialist told the block moulders that Dangote Cement had been in the fore-front of the campaign for quality and standardization so as to save the nation of the headache associated with building collapse which leads to avoidable loss of lives and property. He noted that Dangote Cement had continued to research into quality improvement of the product “and has come up with Dangote Cement 42.5 3x, which is the best cement in the country. We have also continued to increase production capacity so that Nigeria can attain self sufficiency and even export the product.” “By the end of this year, we will be attaining 29 million metric ton per year of cement production,” he said. Amid applause by the block molders, the Dangote Cement Chairman pleaded with the Association leadership to help in the task of putting a stop to cases of building collapse by enlightening their members on the appropriate application of right materials for block moulding. Meanwhile, the Obajana Plant Director, J. V. Gungune, had earlier told the block moulders that one of the reasons of taking them round the plant was for them to appreciate what the company go through in the process of coming out with a bag of cement from the mines to the loading bay.