Dangote promises to lift block makers

Dangote Cement has assured patrons of its products of stability in the price of cement without compromising quality. Read more

It said the decision is to create reasonable profit for all categories of stakeholders in the building industry, especially block moulders.

The Group Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Knut Ulvemoen, gave the assurance while speaking at a one-day sensitisation workshop in Abuja for block makers in the FederalCapitalTerritory (FCT) and its environs, organised by Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and sponsored by the firm.

Knut decried the prevalence of substandard concrete blocks and explained that some block makers in an attempt to miximize profit ended up not using the right blend of cement and sand thus causing defects in structures.

He explained that because of the sensitive nation of the construction and building industry, inappropriate mix of all the materials would have negative effect on the structures, noting that this was the major cause of building collapse.

According to him, Dangote Cement does not compromise its product quality and would therefore support all relevant agencies to ensure protection from poor quality blocks and sancrete, adding that Dangote cement has highest quality anywhere in the world.

He assured the block makers not to succumb to the urge to reduce the qantity of cement in their mix for block with the hope of saving more money pointing out that whioever buys less quality blocks would not patronize makers of such blocks at another time.

In his paper, Director General of SON, Dr. Joseph Odumodu who was represented by Mr. Nelson Adebiyi, Regional Coordinator of SON said the the Federal Government’s transformation agenda coupled with the SON’s policy of zero tolerance to substandard products underlined the need to sensitize block molders to operate in conformity with the national standard.

He stated that the benchmark for fair competitiveness is standard which takes into account the customers’ satisfaction.

Said he:The organization has elaborated standards to ensure quality in block molding and promote safety in our building sector and also to ensure that block molders operate to the international standard. He highlighted the standards and codes elaborated by the SON as Standrad for Sancrete blocks Part one Non loading bearing; Standard for precast concrete, Pavement blocks and standards for pre-stressed and reinforced Concrete poles for transmission and distribution lines.

Odumodu then commended Dangote Cement for its interest in supporting efforts geared towards ensuring quality in the building industry noting that the readiness to sponsor the sensitization workshop was a demonstration of this.

Also making a presentation on the Causes and Remedies for Sub-standard Sancrete blocks, Johnson Olaniyi said the issue of substandard sancrete blocks should be of concern to all and sundry and should be discouraged in the interest of all.

He said visitations to locations where blocks are molded revealed a lot of challenges facing the block makers which he said contributed to a large extent on the substandard blocks produced and part of the causes of building collapse.

Olaniyi identified lack of functional tools; operational expenses; lack of basic technical knowledge; lack of basic raw material and lack of adequate training and said some of these and a combination of some generate a situation where production of sub standard blocks is seen as an attractive option.

Culled from The Nation newspaper