Tolulope Adepena , a design and building construction expert, and the CEO of Pennak Nigeria Limited, a provider of innovative infrastructure projects and services. He is into design and building of various commercial buildings, residential buildings, hospitals and malls. In this interview Adepena identified the need for sustainability in tackling Nigeria’s housing crisis.
He also spoke on frequent building collapse, sustainable solutions to tackle Nigeria’s worsening housing deficit, among other issues. Excerpts. What inspired your focus of going into building construction? What inspired me was the fact that we have a lot of engineers and developers who overcharge and under deliver, so I’m trying to bridge the gap whereby we can deliver something worth the budget to a client within the construction industry in Nigeria.
We’ve had serious cases of building collapse in this country, and a lot of people would say that most of the building experts cut corners and keep building materials. Do you agree with that? I don’t think any building material is that cheap. I just feel like they don’t follow building regulations, and that’s a problem.
Most of the materials supplied in the country are well tested, so I think that by not following the regulations, they’re adding more flaws to projects. So we must avoid such kinds of problems. Also, we have some old buildings, many buildings in this country that are supposed to be demolished.
How many years do you think a house sh.