Nigeria has approved a national building code to stem a spate of building collapses that have claimed dozens of lives in recent months, officials said on Thursday.
The code was approved on Wednesday during a Cabinet meeting presided over by President Olusegun Obasanjo, Information Minister Frank Nweke said.
He said the government was worried by the spate of building collapses in the country and was prepared to stop them.
Housing Minister Olusegun Mimiko said the new code would ensure the safety, efficiency and quality of buildings and structures in the country.
Building experts have blamed the collapses in Nigeria on the use of substandard construction materials, disregard for building regulations and non-compliance with development policies.
Last month, a four-storey residential building caved in suddenly in the commercial capital Lagos, killing 25 and leaving 50 survivors to be pulled out of the rubble.
Authorities launched an investigation into the cause of the tragedy, the latest in a string of such disasters to have struck Africa’s most-populous country in recent months, a number of them in overcrowded Lagos.
The Nigerian Institute of Building said 84 buildings have collapsed in the past 20 years in Nigeria, claiming more than 400 lives. The actual number of collapses could be higher, it added, since the figure was based only on reported cases. — Sapa-AFP