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Nigerian scientists and researchers and
their United States of America counterparts are exploring key issues in
the development of sustainable buildings and information technology
systems in buildings design.

At a four-day international workshop on
innovative design approaches to sustainable buildings, which opened
yesterday at the National Universities Commission in Abuja, Julius
Okojie, the executive secretary of the NUC, stated that there is need
to address the challenges of collapsed buildings in order to place the
country in a good stead to achieve Vision 20-2020.

“This workshop is aimed at providing a
platform for interaction with the view to explore the extent to which
industry approaches to sustainability in the area of focus differ
between Nigeria and the USA,” he said.

“We will develop agenda for future
joint research initiatives that will facilitate knowledge exchange
between the US and Nigeria,” he added.

Mr. Okojie was hopeful that the
gathering would at the end come up with informed decision on innovative
design approaches to sustainable buildings, improve capacity of
Nigerians involved in buildings, and develop agenda for future research
collaborations between both countries. He said the target is to promote
research and development efforts which are of mutual benefits to
Nigeria and the United States.

He further disclosed that Nigeria had
already signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with George Mason
Universities, USA, which is a leading institution in the field of
innovation and entrepreneurial education.

“The MoU specifically focused on the
development of entrepreneurial education, information technology driven
students, resource centre, institutional management, as well as sharing
experiences on university-industry collaboration,” Mr. Okojie said.

The workshop was organised at the instance of the National Science Foundation of the United States of America.

Bala Mohammed, minister, Federal
Capital Territory, who also spoke at the event, explained that when the
issue of buildings in Nigeria is raised today, the first thoughts that
come to one’s mind are the qualification and technical competence of
the experts involved in the entire process, as the decline in quality
of the final output as led to the rampant cases of collapsed buildings
in recent times.

“The challenges of developing
innovative design approaches to sustainable buildings can only be
handled by science and technology experts. As a developing nation with
the task of providing the desired dividends of democratic governance,
which include housing, to about 150 million Nigerians, we are not
unaware of the fact that we can only get there through collaborations,”

Mr. Mohammed said.