The Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI) is a Government of Nigeria institute responsible for researching and developing road and building materials for the Nigerian building industry. The institute is under the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology of Nigeria.

History

The institute replaced the West African Building Research Institute which was established in 1952 by building professionals from Ghana and Nigeria in

Accra Accra (; tw, Nkran; dag, Ankara; gaa, Ga or ''Gaga'') is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , ...

, Ghana. Membership of the institute was made up of building engineers from both countries. When Nigeria gained independence from Britain, the Nigerian members of the institute left the West African Building Research Institute to form the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute in 1978. The Ghanaian members formed the Building Research Institute of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Locations

The headquarter of NBRRI is in

Abuja Abuja () is the capital and eighth most populous city of Nigeria. Situated at the centre of the country within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), it is a planned city built mainly in the 1980s based on a master plan by International Plann ...

, Nigeria. There are four zonal offices that facilitates the institutes activities: #Eastern Zonal Office in Anambra State #Western Zonal Office in Ikoyi, Lagos #Northern Zonal Office in Kano, Kano State #National Liboratory & Production Complex in Otta, Ogun State

Nation building

The institute engages the Government of Nigeria on various policies that regulate and improve the quality of buildings in Nigeria. In May 2011 the Federal Government of Nigeria announced a Material Testing Laboratory to be set up, which would provide a facility for the testing of building material before use. The facility had become necessary due to the regular occurrence of collapsing buildings. The facility was to function as research and education centre for tertiary institutions and the construction industry.

Collaborations

NBRRI has research collaboration with other state and foreign agencies. In 2009, the institutes and its Ghanaian counterpart signed a memorandum of understanding to research into building and road construction materials. In June 2011, the NBRRI announced it was partnering with the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria for the construction of 1,000 housing units every federal state of Nigeria. The partnership required that all the buildings be constructed using alternative building materials that had been developed by the institute.

Achievements

In March 2011, the institute announced that it had developed a new technology for the moulding of bricks known as cement stabilized bricks technology. The new technology was to reduce the cost of building due to a cheap alternative building material that the technology used in the production of bricks.

References