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

Ghana

Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...

 and Nigeria in Accra

Accra

Accra is the capital and largest city of Ghana, with an urban population of 1,658,937 according to the 2000 census. Accra is also the capital of the Greater Accra Region and of the Accra Metropolitan District, with which it is coterminous...

, Ghana. Membership of the institute was made up of building engineers from both countries. When Nigeria gained independence from Britain

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, 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

Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences

The Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences is an arts and science institution of Ghana, based in the capital Accra. It was founded in 1959 by Kwame Nkrumah with the aim to promote the pursuit, advancement and dissemination of knowledge in all branches of the sciences and the humanities.It formally...

.

Locations

The headquarters of NBRRI is in Abuja

Abuja

Abuja is the capital city of Nigeria. It is located in the centre of Nigeria, within the Federal Capital Territory . Abuja is a planned city, and was built mainly in the 1980s. It officially became Nigeria's capital on 12 December 1991, replacing Lagos...

, Nigeria. There are four zonal offices that facilitates the institutes activities. They are:

1. Eastern Zonal Office in Anambra State
   Anambra State
   Anambra is a state in south-eastern Nigeria. Its name is an anglicized version of the original 'Oma Mbala', the native name of the Anambra River. The Capital and the Seat of Government is Awka. Onitsha and Nnewi are the biggest commercial and industrial cities, respectively. The state's theme is...
   
   
2. Western Zonal Office in Ikoyi
   Ikoyi
   Ikoyi is the most affluent neighborhood of Lagos, Nigeria, located on Lagos Island. It lies to the northeast of Obalende and encompasses the eastern half of Lagos Island and lies at the edge of the Lagos Lagoon...
   
   , Lagos
   Lagos
   Lagos is a port and the most populous conurbation in Nigeria. With a population of 7,937,932, it is currently the third most populous city in Africa after Cairo and Kinshasa, and currently estimated to be the second fastest growing city in Africa...
   
   
3. Northern Zonal Office in Kano
   Kano
   Kano is a city in Nigeria and the capital of Kano State in Northern Nigeria. Its metropolitan population is the second largest in Nigeria after Lagos. The Kano Urban area covers 137 sq.km and comprises six Local Government Area - Kano Municipal, Fagge, Dala, Gwale, Tarauni and Nassarawa - with a...
   
   , Kano State
   Kano State
   Kano State is a state located in North-Western Nigeria. Created on May 27, 1967 from part of the Northern Region, Kano state borders Katsina State to the north-west, Jigawa State to the north-east, Bauchi State to the south-east and Kaduna State to the south-west...
   
   
4. National Liboratory & Production Complex in Otta, Ogun State
   Ogun State
   Ogun State is a state in South-western Nigeria. It borders Lagos State to the South, Oyo and Osun states to the North, Ondo State to the east and the republic of Benin to the west. Abeokuta is the capital and largest city in the 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 that it would empower the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute to setup a Material Testing Laboratory to be cited in the Federal Capital Territory. The testing lab was to 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

Memorandum of understanding

A memorandum of understanding is a document describing a bilateral or multilateral agreement between parties. It expresses a convergence of will between the parties, indicating an intended common line of action. It is often used in cases where parties either do not imply a legal commitment or in...

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

The institute in March, 2011 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.