Ngozi Nwoke
Association of Consulting Architects of Nigeria (ACAN) has said that the whole essence of made-in-Nigeria goods is to have products built from the scratch with local materials.
The body made the statement when its members paid a courtesy visit to CDK Integrated Industries, Shagamu, Ogun State, recently.
Secretary of the association, Mrs. Ekaete Bassey-Fujah, who led the delegation on the occasion, said the visit had added substantial value to the professional lives of members of the association.
Bassey-Fujah, who represented the president of the group, said: “CDK invited us to witness their new products in their factory; we had been arranging this visit since last year and we were glad we finally made it.
“We were highly impressed with what we saw. The tiles and sanitary wares were actually made in Nigeria from the scratch; they were not made from broken pieces of sanitary wares and that’s important to us as architects and designers.
“We like to have the ability to design things and make them fit into the different kinds of phases that we are presented with. This is a huge opportunity given to us by CDK to learn more on the customisation of designs for the projects that we work on, and we were grateful to the management for providing us with the useful platform to add to our knowledge.”
She noted that sourcing materials from the scratch gives impetus to the federal government’s local content initiative. She also applauded the company for using materials from the grassroots, emphasising that doing so would help to save scarce foreign exchange.
Bassey-Fujah, however, stated that it was unfortunate that there were not too many such factories in Nigeria.
“This is the only factory producing sanitary wares. They have a massive warehouse for quality production of sanitary wares and tiles, where the quality has been tested and proven durable.
“They showed us how these products are checked to ascertain the quality and how to detect defects in the products. This is a great way to improve made-in-Nigeria products. We are very impressed with what we have seen and hope that more companies producing sanitary wares will emerge and also emulate the quality of CDK,” she said.
The managing director, CDK Integrated Industries, Mr. Bernard Longe, took members of the association around the factory to witness the production of tiles and sanitary wares. He explained that the company was delighted to introduce the new products to the association and also bring to the awareness of Nigerians the necessity to patronise made-in-Nigeria sanitary products.
“Members of the Institution of Architects are the major influencers in our industry today and it is very necessary to introduce each of our new products to the institution, which is the major purpose of their visit. There is nothing like visiting the factory and witnessing live the production of these sanitary wares. They have also confirmed that when we say these products are produced in Nigeria, we don’t exaggerate. They have been able to see for themselves and learnt different patterns of designs that would be useful to their works,” he said.
Longe disclosed that the factory was the only factory in Nigeria producing sanitary wares. He explained that, to satisfy customers’ needs and meet their demands, his firm maintains its high quality standard of production, and ensures sufficient stocks are available to avoid scarcity: “We go through so many processes to ensure that the tiles and sanitary wares come out in good quality. For instance, we have to bake the sanitary wares for over 24 hours, which consumes a lot of gas. We can decide to do it the easy way to save cost and time, but we know it won’t stand the test of time and that would leave doubts on us.
“So, we ensure that we follow due process so they come out in high quality, and we also try to be consistent with production to avoid the demand exceeding the supply.”
He said the company also helped in creating job opportunities for both Nigerians and foreigners alike.