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By Daniel Adaji
The Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria (CORBON) and the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at fostering collaboration, improving infrastructure quality, and strengthening professional standards in Nigeria’s construction sector.
Speaking at the signing ceremony in Abuja on Thursday, CORBON Chairman, Dr. Samson Opaluwah said, “This signposts a milestone in our joint endeavours to foster professional excellence, collaborative delivery and the optimisation of human resources in the built environment.”
Opaluwah added that the partnership aims to “maintain the highest levels of professionalism and the deployment of the best expertise in the development and management of our country’s infrastructure.”
According to the agreement, both councils will collaborate on knowledge exchange, joint capacity building, regulatory enforcement, and the promotion of best practices in the building and engineering industries.
Highlighting the urgent need to bridge regulatory gaps in the built industry, COREN President, Professor Sadiq Abubakar, stated, “If we envisage that we are going to be competitors and we’re going to be confronting ourselves, Nigeria is going to lose. Nigerians will lose. Our economy will go down.”
Key benefits of the MoU include enhanced capacity building for registered professionals, increased research collaboration, improved monitoring of industry standards, and a unified approach to enforcing compliance.
Abubakar stated that this cooperation is essential in addressing persistent issues like building collapses. He noted the lack of legislation to prosecute the major culprits of building collapse in the country – the developers.
He added that “Eighty per cent of what’s happening is not captured in the legislation. It has to do with the developers. With the signing of the MoU, we are going to change that.”
He revealed that COREN has initiated a legislative amendment process to extend its regulatory scope.
“We will sit down with CORBON and request input on that. We want to fast-track that process so that before the end of this year, we are in the National Assembly,” he said.
The COREN president also announced plans to integrate CORBON-certified professionals into its Enforcement and Regulatory Monitoring (ERM) structure across states in the country and the Federal Capital Territory.
Abubakar reaffirmed that the synergy will further strengthen the regulatory bodies to tackle quackery in the industry.
“When we go out, we go as a solid group,” he said.
Both leaders committed to a future of synergy, not rivalry, adding that, the occasion marks a major milestone in the push for sustainable infrastructure development through coordinated efforts between builders and engineers.
“Today, we embark on a new chapter of cooperation and collaboration towards mutual growth, rather than competition and confrontation,” Opaluwah said.
Abubakar added, “We are not competing. We should synergize and work as a team to improve the nation and to improve our lot.”
The ceremony ended with the exchange of mementos, symbolizing mutual respect and commitment to a shared vision for Nigeria’s built environment.