Patronise indigenous construction firms, Expert urges FG, state govts

Building and civil engineering professional, Engr. Olabiyi Olaore, has called on the government to patronise indigenous construction firms for projects, adding that the federal government is often seen prioritizing foreign contractors over them.

Engr. Olaore, who is also the Chief Executive Officer, Pop Joe Construction Limited, made this statement during presentation of an award as one of the 2023 Top Ten Men of Honor under the Most Influential Award Series, organized by the Ibadan Media Limited, where he was presented with the “Outstanding Project Management Achievement Award”.

The convener of the award, Mr Ola Olanrewaju, stated that Olaore deserved to be listed as one of the Top 10 Men of honor in the state, considering his impact and contribution to humanity and to the growth of Oyo State.

While reacting after the presentation of the award, he lamented  how the country favoyrs the foreign contractors over indigenous contractors and unknowing to them that these foreign contractors will still make use of the locals to execute these projects.

“Many of these foreign workers contractors who are awarded construction contracts, make use of the technical know-how of the indigenous engineers to execute these projects. Most organizations do not know this but I worked under a foreign company for 5years named CAPPA & D’ALBERTO in Lagos, before I resigned and this company employs local engineers like us to execute their projects.

“After resigning, I opened my company and as of then, it was an enterprise company in 2005 before becoming a Limited Liability Company in 2009, and since then we have worked for many organizations, schools, Federal government and some State government, and we also have many youthful Nigerians working with us”, he noted.