Federal Government has bemoaned the dearth of indigenous engineering technicians and craftsmen in Nigeria, saying that the nation loses over N900 billion to foreign engineering services

In his address at the opening of the 29th Engineering Assembly, in Abuja, yesterday, the president of Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), Engineer Ali Rabiu, said that the dearth of indigenous engineering technicians and craftsmen in Nigeria is a major economic setback and as the skills gap continues to widen there has been a huge capital flight because expatriates come in to fill the lacuna at the detriment of the country.
“It was estimated that the country loses over N900 billion to foreign engineering technicians and craftsmen as the local built environment fails to generate the required manpower” he said.
According to him, more than 80 per cent of masons, carpenters, steel fabricators, plumbers, electricians, painters and tilers on construction sites are foreigners from neighbouring countries of Cameroon, Niger, Togo and Ghana.
Rabiu submitted that some people go as far as China to employ engineering technicians and craftsmen.
The skill gap, he said, has continued to widen due to retirements of aged engineering technicians without the young generation being sufficiently groomed to take over from them.
“The situation is compounded by the absence of well-structured apprenticeship system for workmen in technical colleges. Technical colleges are the institutions who produce members of the engineering cadre and are no more available” he said.
In his remarks, the Governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi said that the cost of projects in Nigeria is highest in the world. In his opinion, the practice where a foreigner heads a construction site should be reviewed. He accepted to head the radicalisation move to that effect.
Speaking in the same vein, the Senate President, Dr Ahmed Lawan, said that in the attempt to reduce projects costs in Nigeria, the former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, set up the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP). He urged the engineers to assist in the reduction of cost of projects.
Lawan who was represented by Senator Adamu Aliero, stated that the National Assembly passed a local content bill as part of efforts to ensure that Nigerians are preferred to handle projects.
“Our engineers are the best in the world. I don’t see why they should be relegated to the background. It is left for us to take over the projects. Executive Order Number 5 is expected to give engineers what they want and that is to take over all engineering works in Nigeria” he said