We must research, develop, utilise our local building materials —Okupe

Adewunmi Okupe, an architect and one of the affordable housing advocates, is the Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer, ACE Hi-Teck Construction Company Ltd. In this interview with DAYO AYEYEMI, he speaks extensively on how Nigerians can reduce the housing cost by adopting the use of local building materials as alternative to the foreign ones. He advised the government to continue to fund research and also re-orientate the stakeholders about the local building materials.

One of the issues limiting affordable housing provision in Nigeria is the rising materials’ cost. What is your take?

My take is that when we talk about rising material costs, most of the materials we are talking about are the ones that have more foreign inputs. It is unfortunate that we are still at the stage we are now. This issue has been coming up over and over again. I was in Kano 35 years ago, under the auspices of Association of Housing Corporations Limited, and I presented a paper that what we need to do, is to do research on our local materials, develop them, and utilise them. This should get to the extent that when we break down the components of a house, as the prices are rising because of the foreign inputs, we already have locally developed materials that we can substitute to cushion that effect.  This means that if I started with, maybe a particular type of roofing sheet, which cost is now going higher, I already have an alternative local material that has been developed and tested to substitute it. Do the cost still remains on that level?

It is not going to be the kind of problem we have today. But I think that we are getting to a crossroad. We know our problem. Most of the speakers have spoken essentially about the same thing.

We know our problem. Our problem is that we have not imbibed local technology, local materials. Even people are talking about development of technology.

We should really see to where we are starting from. We can improve on what we have, not discard and just jump to a new technology. That cannot work.

So even those who have done research and have gone into development, the third component is not in place yet, and that is utilization. We have to do research, we have to do development, and we have to utilize. Utilizing that we are going to discover the flaws and other things, and then improve.

 

How many of these locally made building materials do we have in government houses, offices?

These are the issues. As I said, we know our problem, but we need to solve it by utilising what we have.

When we do that, the cost will come down drastically. Over the years, I have developed a couple of materials, and I have seen people who have done the same, but the aspect of utilization, we need to do a re-orientation of ourselves.

 

How do you mean?

You know, I went to the extent of developing a block of three units, family unit, terrace housing. I used two with conventional materials, the third one, alternative. Except I tell you that the third one is an alternative development, you will not know.

And that building, I did it from the output of the Kano’s meeting, that was 35 years ago. The buildings are still standing today. Except I tell you that this one is the local development, and this is the conventional one, you will not know the difference.

So I believe that if we are ready to do what we need to do, we are going to get there in a very short time.

 

What’s your advice to the government?

My advice to government is to continue to fund research, and then re-orientate the people. I don’t know whether you see what we call National Orientation Agency,. It should orientate us that what we have is valuable, there is value in it.

Let’s change our mentality and our eyes away from more dependency on what is foreign. It’s just like you have a Zobo drink in a party. If you go for a wedding, if I put a Zobo drink before you, and I put a five-a-life before you, most people will take the five-a-life.

But the Zobo is local. Are you getting me? It’s healthier. But because of reorientation, you believe that this one is better.

Unfortunately, the better one we are talking about is more expensive. So that’s what I’m talking about. So we need a reorientation that local does not mean inferior.

Local is valuable, it’s quality, and it can be developed. By so doing, we are going to save a lot of foreign exchange.

 

You talked about more research and development, is it that the Nigeria Building Road Research Institute, NIBRRI, cannot meet what we are talking about?

NIBRRI has tried. 35 years ago, I was talking about, I went to  NIBRRI and I saw what they had done.

I even bought equipment from them to build the first set of houses that I built. But they need encouragement. When you are doing research and developing something and it’s not being used, that’s another part. Are you getting me? So I think their products need to be commercialized and put into the market. Then they will get enough encouragement.

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