The controversies surrounding the right quality of cement has been laid to
rest with the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Olusegu
Aganga reported to have approved new cement standards in the country.
The approved standards based on the recommendation of the Technical
Committee set by the Governing Board of the Standard Organization of
Nigeria (SON), in the wake of cement quality debate by the stakeholders
has been given mandatory compliance by the local manufacturers of cement
and importers as well.
Earlier, SON Governing Council recently meet in Abuja and approved the TC
recommendation on the new cement standards before it was sent to Minister
Aganga for final approval
A top official of SON confirmed in Lagos yesterday that approval which is
already being conveyed to the manufacturers, showed that the new
grade-strengths of cement production in Nigeria NlS 444-1, which
automatically becomes the new composition and conformity criteria for
common cement in the country.
The SON Official said however that the industry operators will be given
few months to enable them time to implement the new rules.
Said he: “The standards were reviewed because the existing ones had
attained five year mandatory period for review as well as due to concerns
over the quality of cement in the Nigerian markets. There are also fears
over misapplication of the different strength classes of cement which was
allegedly attributed to the frequent collapse of buildings in Nigeria.
“All the relevant stakeholders and experts in the cement sub-sector such
as Cement Manufacturers, Universities, Research Institutes, Consumer
Associations, Block Moulders Association of Nigeria, Non-Governmental
Organizations, Ministries, Departments and
Agencies, among others, fully participated in the activities leading
to the review of the standards.”
According to him, the review incorporated information on the application
of the various grades of cement as well as additional information and
features on the bag of cement.
He stated further; the features/information include: colour code for
proper identification
according to strength class and the coloured part of the bag with the
labelling information is to take one-third of the bag surface on both
sides. Again, the location address of manufacturer, batch number and
expiry date shall be stated under the new regime on cement.
Following the new order, the information on application of the product are
as follows:
· CEM I 52.5R and 52.5N for use in the construction of bridges;
· CEM II 42.5R, 42.5N for use in the casting of columns, beams,
slabs, block moulding.
· CEM I & II 32.5R, 32.5N for plastering of buildings only.
According to the source, the new guidelines would enable the end-users
make the right choice, help to avoid unethical application of the
different types of cement; enhance proper identification of the different
cement classes, for traceability as well as to guide the users.
It would be recalled that recently newspapers were awash with the issue of
weak cement resulting to building collapse.
This made SON to set up a high powered technical committee to look at
the existing grades of cement in the country with a view to recommending
the best grades that should be in place for the good of the country.