In its bid to put an end to incessant building collapse in the country, the BUA Group, makers of BUA – Obu Cement yesterday in Ilorin, Kwara State organised a workshop for stakeholders in block making industry.
The workshop centred on proper mixture of cement and other materials to ensure quality blocks production for building purposes.
General manager, Sales and Marketing of BUA Group, Mr Nasir Ladan, in his opening remarks, said the workshop was imperative to offer standard practices to address the series of building collapse as a result of sharp practices and wrong use of materials especially in block molding.
The workshop was titled: “Optimising Cement Usage to Achieve Better Quality and Yields in Block-Making.”
According to him, there is a school of thought that believes there is misapplication of cement and other materials as a result of ignorance, which has caused building collapse.
Ladan, however said that the way forward depended on intensifying education and training of end users on the correct use of the cement mix in the long term.
“So what we are doing here today is simple; BUA Cement has consistently made it its responsibility to educate its stakeholders on the proper mix of cement with other materials.
“We believe that standard building of high-quality is possible only if the mix of the cement with other materials possesses optimum composition.
“Cement quality is of primary importance to the ultimate consumers who are builders, concrete and block makers.
“This is where the BUA Cement brand is different from others because it is of 42.5 and 52.5 texture grade. This is the highest quality texture, which mixes and dries easily.
“BUA Cement is certified in fineness, setting time, soundness and strength.
“These are the values of the cement and requirements in the mix with other construction materials such as sand and granite among others,” he said.
In his presentation, the manager, Process Quality and Environment of the company, Adesola Adeyinka, blamed most building collapse on facilities and substandard block making.
Adeyinka explained that block makers must embrace right proportioning of sand, water and cement to get quality output.
He also stressed the need for the use of clean and drinkable water as against deleterious or toxic one in block making.
Officials of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) also educated the stakeholders on the required standard in the industry for quality control.
