Female builders pledge to empower more women
The Association of Professional Female Builders of Nigeria has called for greater participation of women in the building industry, vowing to empower more women to increase their visibility and opportunities in the profession.
The President of the APFBN, Builder Grace Omojola, stated this on Thursday during her investiture as the fifth president of the association in Akure, the Ondo State capital.
Omojola said the association was using mentoring, innovation and entrepreneurship programmes to equip women with skills and create opportunities for them to thrive in the building profession.
She said, “Entrepreneurial programmes were being introduced to equip women with additional skills and improve their acceptance and economic participation in society.
”The building environment, as we all know, is dominated mainly by the men. But the women, they are really trying to form up through mentoring and different innovative and initiative programmes that we are coming up with as the Association of Professional Women Builders.
“We are to empower women in different perspectives. Even the artisans, we are encouraging them, the women artisans, we are encouraging them to participate in the activities of the APFBN.”
The APFBN president urged women to remain committed to their profession, saying excellence was essential to making meaningful progress in the industry.
Speaking at the event, a professor of building and registered builder, Prof. Kolapo Eleka, identified ethical lapses and poor professional standards as major factors contributing to building collapse.
“When you make use of substandard materials, it’s still an issue of ethics; when there is a case of poor supervision, it’s a case of ethics,” Eleka said.
He called on regulatory bodies to strengthen monitoring and enforcement to identify and remove unqualified practitioners from the building industry.
Eleka also linked the rising cost of building materials to attempts by developers and artisans to cut corners, warning that excessive efforts to manage materials could contribute to building failures.
He urged the government to support local production of building materials instead of relying mainly on imported products, saying this would help reduce production costs and pressure on builders.
The Chairman of the occasion, Princess Olufunmilayo Ademulegun-Brown, congratulated Omojola on her emergence as the association’s fifth president.
Ademulegun-Brown, who was represented by a Commissioner in the Ondo State Universal Basic Education Board, Dr Oyelade Olanrewaju, urged the new president to lead with wisdom, humility and courage.
She also called on members to support the new leadership in moving the association forward.
The immediate past chairperson, Builder Margaret Sati-Shuarka, said her administration recorded achievements including the launch of the association’s official website and its maiden online journal, which she said had been indexed in Google Scholar.
Shuarka urged the new leadership to protect the association’s vision of promoting professional excellence and leadership for sustainable shelter, build partnerships and collaborations, and mentor young female builders to sustain the association in the future.
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