Buhari signs Engineers Amendment Act into law

Buhari signs Engineers Amendment Act into law

President Muhammadu Buhari has assented to the Engineers (Registration etc) Amendment Act, 2019.  The principal Act establishes the Council for Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria – COREN with power vested. According to the Senior Special Assistant on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Ita Enang, the new amendment has broadened the powers of COREN with far-reaching powers of prosecution of infractions, regulating industrial training of engineers, capacity building of local content in Nigerian engineering industry.

Specifically, he said: “The new law grants COREN powers of prosecuting any person or firm that contravenes the provisions of this Act in a court of competent jurisdiction; regulating industrial training schemes of engineering practitioners and students; ensuring capacity building and monitoring local content development in the Nigerian engineering industry through– mandatory attachment of Nigerians to expatriate engineers on major projects to understudy them from inception.

“(ii) Ensuring that all foreign engineering firms establish their design offices in Nigeria. 

(iii) granting of compulsory attestation to all expatriate quota for engineering practitioners, including turnkey project, that there are no qualified and competent Nigerians for the job in question at the time of application and that granting of the expatriate quota shall be contingent on training of such number of persons as may be required for the execution of the job, and;

“(iv) Ensuring that before being allowed to practice in Nigeria, such foreign engineering practitioners granted work permit, register with the council and obtain such licenses as may be required from time to time; (h) investigating engineering failures.’’

He said that the new Act further admits into the council (COREN) the following: “Nigerian Association of Technologists in Engineering, Nigerian Society of Engineering Technicians and Nigerian Association of Engineering Craftsmen, and One person each appointed to represent the Association for Consulting Engineering in Nigeria, Federation of Construction Industry in Nigeria Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, and Armed Forces in rotation.’’

The council, he said, is now entitled to maintain a fund into which shall be paid money appropriated by the National Assembly, subventions, fees, charges for services rendered or publications made, donations, engineering development levy, among others.

Source: The Nation