Cement manufacturers in Nigeria have staunchly refuted claims that poor quality of the commodity is responsible for the increasing cases of collapsed buildings all over the country.
The association of cement producers comprising, Lafarge Cement, Wapco, Ashaka Cement, Northern Cement Company of Nigeria and United Cement Company Plc, all believe that attention should rather be on the need to improve construction practices.
They insisted that with new technology and capacity now installed, the cement quality in Nigeria conformed to highest international standard and that the industry was constantly working with regulatory authorities to ensure up-to-date testing, certification of product and quality notch.
The country Director of Lafarge Cement Wapco Plc, Guillaume Roux, said that there were no sub-standard products in Nigeria.
Mr. Roux told newsmen on Friday in Lagos that the international standard of control was followed in Nigeria, describing Nigeria’s cement industry as the most modern in Africa and in the world.
“There is no such thing as substandard cement in Nigeria. What we discussed earlier is that there is a need to bring different solutions for different applications and each of those solutions has very high level of quality control standards and this, for us, is critical to continue to help the environment to have good cement,” he said.
Mr Roux stated that the industry was looking at sponsoring conventions about collapsed building to explain how cement and solutions could be used in order to ensure that the quality of the construction was very good.
“Education of block makers, education of construction and education of mixing is absolutely essential to raise the quality of the construction at the level of the quality of the cement which is very good in Nigeria because the Nigerian cement industry is at a very good level,” he said.
Several buildings have collapsed in Nigeria with most in Lagos State, a development that builders have blamed cement manufacturers for.
By Ugochukwu Onyeocha
