Construction experts on Wednesday warned that mass migration of trained artisans and certified professionals from the sector to other countries posed a threat to the future of the nation’s development.

The experts who were captains of construction industries drawn from all the seven built environment professionals gave the warning during a round table event in Lagos.

Discussants at the event, which had the theme “Enhancing Quality Management in Project Delivery”, observed that the mass exit of talents was not yet noticed because of the current dip in the sector.

The experts said the education system in Nigeria usually leaves a vacuum, and it usually takes years of hard work to build the capacity of artisans and professionals, and immediately after they achieve efficiency, they leave the country.

They lamented that the nation’s tertiary institutions were not producing graduates to meet the actual needs of society, and the few trained by construction firms migrated to use the knowledge in developed countries.

They decried that the technical schools were not enjoying adequate patronage, and the graduates usually took up other trades because of the poor remuneration of the cadre in Nigeria.

The experts called for value re-orientation toward celebrating the roles of artisans in nation-building to ensure they did not keep quitting the space for others from neighbouring African countries to take over the sector.

They also called for collaboration and synergy among professional associations to address quackery, inadequate regulations, quality control and other issues leading to building collapse and construction failures.

Philips Olusesan, treasurer of the Lagos State chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB), who represented the chairman, Lucky Isename, said the younger generation had a mindset of training to leave the country.

“They are learning not to stay here but to travel out,” Mr Isename said.

There has been a surge in young Nigerians leaving the country for greener pastures abroad. The phenomenon is termed Japa.

Mr Isename said there was a need to make the construction industry more attractive for the younger generation of skilled and unskilled workers.

An architect from Building Design Workshop/Aiden, Oludayo Uansohia, said the problems of mass migration in the construction sector had existed for a long time.

“Once there is a boom in the construction industry, we are going to run into a huge problem because if the demand increases, there would be an issue of supply,” he said.

Diran Akerele of Consultants Collaborative Partnership, said several plumbers, masons and other trained artisans usually abandoned the sector because of poor remuneration and took to riding commercial motorcycles and tricycles.

Mr Akerele said to achieve quality project delivery, there was a need to improve the competency of artisans and professionals through on-the-job training because there was usually a gap between what they learnt in school and reality on site.

Omisore Abiodun of Bonus Engineering, stressed the need for controls for quality management.

Mr Abiodun said that the sector relied heavily on on-the-job training, which was already failing because of the brain drain, hence the need for the experts to evolve new measures.

The head of operations, Gemona West Interior Design Studios, Joy Opuda, urged the experts to leverage the opportunities in the mass migration as it would lead to technology and culture transfer.

“While Nigerians are going, we have expatriates coming in. I feel like there is an opportunity for collaboration,” she said.

Other experts proffered solutions to achieving transparency in project procurement, the importance of soil and materials testing, and environment-friendly construction, amongst others.

 (NAN)