LASBCA
By Babawale Solomon
Eko Hot Blog reports that Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, is poised to inaugurate the new office building of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA).
The building will commissioned at an event scheduled for Tuesday, November 21, 2023.
In a phone interview with Eko Hot Blog, Mr. Segun Olaoye, the Director of the Public Affairs Unit at LASBCA, emphasized the importance of having a permanent site for the agency.
“Before now, the agency did not have a building of its own; we were working from the building owned by the Lagos State Ministry of Works,” he told our correspondent.
“So, we felt it is good to have a permanent building of our own that will be a signature for all eyes and a signpost on how building construction should be done in the state.”
Olaoye also delved into the activities of the agency in the state, stating that it is responsible for authorising building construction, issuing development permits, inspecting various stages of construction, and removing distressed buildings, amongst others.
“The major responsibilities of the agency are to issue authorisation to commence construction, also give out development permit, inspect and satisfy stages of building construction, verify general contractors, issuing of certificate of completion, identify and remove distressed non-compliance building in the state, ensuring public health in buildings are controlled; like installation of fire extinguisher, toilet and other things that will make the house habitable,” the LASBCA spokesperson said.
He also revealed the measures put in place to rapidly identify weak structures to avert disaster.
“What we do is that we have a monitoring team that goes out to monitor the environment, identify distressed buildings,” Olaoye stated.
“Once a building is detected, we write a letter to the owner for them to do structural stability test with Lagos state testing laboratory agency. They will be the one to tell us if the house is habitable or not.
“If it’s not habitable, we instruct the owners to bring it down at a period of time and if they fail to bring it down, the state will bring it down at the cost of the owners.”
He reiterated that enough information and education were being given to land and house owners by the agency to ensure quality structures.
“We give out enough information and conduct adequate enlightenment programs but our people love to cut corners instead of coming to the agency to get permission to commence construction, so that we can monitor every stages of the construction and issue certification but our people prefer to call local mason to put building together,” the LASBCA head of public affairs unit said.
“There’s a process in building construction, once you go through that process, they won’t experience the collapse occurring here and there.”
Olaoye also acknowledged that the agency enjoys unwavering support from the state government of which its official building is a testament of the good relationship between the agency and the Lagos state government.
LASBCA, established in line with the Lagos State Urban and Regional Planning and Development Law of 2010, officially commenced operations on August 12, 2012.
Over the years, the agency operated from a building owned by the Ministry of Works, and this upcoming commissioning marks a significant milestone for the agency.
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