Plusworld Roofing, an indigenous roofing solution company, together with two of its foreign partners, has rolled out programmes to train young and enterprising Nigerians free of charge in roofing engineering and maintenance.
The empowerment and skill acquisition programme is aimed at training Nigerian youths to become specialists in providing solutions to roofing problems after which they are giving certificates to operate as roof specialists.
They are to be trained in core areas such as roof repairs, roof painting, roof washing, water proofing, roof design, roof construction, roof design, roof supply and installation.
The foreign partners are Hydro Seal USA and NUTECH Paint Australia. Hydro Seal is the producer of Hydro Seal, an all-in-one product which is used in filling cracks, water proofing, texturing and decoration, while NUTECH Australia is the world producer of original roof paints with over 43 years of experience.
Speaking with journalists while flagging off the programme at the Ajah office of Plusworld Limited. Recently, John Igbaifua, managing director/CEO of the company, said the objectives of his company and its partners for setting up the programme were among other things, to empower interested youths to face future challenges, reduce unemployment rate in the society and creating a school of roofing experts to tackle the problems associated with roofing in the country.
He said about 30 participants would be accommodated per batch in a session that would last for four weeks each at no cost at all to the participants, adding that the programme would endure for as long as the relationship with the foreign partners (who would be providing technical aids to the programme), lasted.
Explaining the importance of roof to a building, Igbaifua stressed that apart from protecting the building and its occupants from the elements and outside weather conditions, roofs added beauty to the building and could also act as a landmarks as well as added identity to the building.
“Apart from its aesthetic functions, the roof insulation and ventilation must all work together to keep the building free of moisture. Roofs also provide protection from the sun. In fact, if designed correctly, roof overhangs can protect the building’s exterior walls from moisture and sun. The concerns regarding moisture, standing water, durability and appearance are different, reflected in the choices of roofing materials,” he said
He said the importance of a roof to a building could not thus be overemphasized as damage to a building roof could spell doom for the owner financially, psychologically and socially, while the cost and time spent of renovation could be enormous.
He attributed wear and tear, natural disaster, wrong climbing by unprofessional personnel either during construction or installation of anthenals and cable dishes, use of poor quality or inferior materials for construction, among others as the causes of roof damage.
Igbaifua said people often incur avoidable and unnecessary expenses while renovating their building roofs due to ignorance of the latest technology in that field of construction.
“The world had moved from the dogmatic era of pull down and re-construct, a venture he termed ‘huge waste of time and money,’ adding that such could be done faster, easier and cheaper with new technological innovations, a process that could knock off close to 60 percent of the total cost of the renovation exercise.
PlusWorld, being pioneers in the field in the country, gave 100 percent adherence and compliance to health and safety of both the workers and the work environment, with well-established safety policies which measure up to both local and international standards, he stated.
Such people should be well trained on various designs of architecture and on the latest types of materials that are best suited for different architectural designs and different types of weather, which is where our partners come in,” he said.
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