Pieter Van Den Berg is the Head, Commercial Construction Segment for Eaton across sub-Saharan Africa. In this interview with MAUREEN IHUA-MADUENYI, he talks about the importance of quality electrical installations in building construction
what are the basic steps that should be taken as regards electricity installations during construction?
Building regulations needs to be followed; so a consultant needs to create a specification document that will specify what kind of cable, plugs, sockets, circuit breakers and anything electrical that will be used and draw out a full plan up to the final stage of construction. To make sure that you comply, you must have a consultant that does this for you and then to make sure it is done correctly, the consultant needs to make sure he signs off the project. He will verify and do a final check, and then sign off but there must be a document on how to work.
It is the responsibility of the consultant to tell a project owner when a cable is substandard and will be a hazard; so you don’t have buildings burning down. So, it is important in Nigeria for specifications to be followed by the consultants.
What about a building that is already functional, how can any mistake that was made during construction be corrected?
What should be done is what is called an energy audit, which will look at what you are consuming; for instance, your load which should be a specific amount of kilowatts and the supply should also be a specific amount of kilowatts. It will be difficult in an existing building to go back to verify the installation quality, but you can check the distribution board to know whether the quality of the product in the distribution board is good and if not, you can make a recommendation.
What informed your decision to expand into Nigeria at this time that the economy is in recession?
Eaton has been based in other African countries; we are in Morocco, Kenya, and now Nigeria. So, even though the economy may be in recession, we as a company are doing this on the idea that we want to grow and Nigeria has got a lot of potential, though we need to do a lot of ground work to revitalise the idea of working with Eaton. One of our focuses will be on safety because it is important to have safety knowledge.
So, we need to empower the people of Nigeria, teach them so that when there is an opportunity, they can know what to do. It is not a come in and leave scenario; we are here to stay.
There are a lot of potential in the commercial construction sector, which I am in, if you look at the sector. But there is a need to focus on safety, that’s why we decided to come in at this time.
What new technology and specific areas of operation do you think need to be improved upon in terms of electrical installations?
The products, which we are revitalising with our consultants are basically on fire and electrical installations; we are not launching anything new. The people here have been buying the products, so, we are just revitalising them. A lot of the time when a product is not manufactured in a country, a lot of people forget about it. Eaton is a global technology leader in power management solutions that make electrical, hydraulic and mechanical power operate more efficiently, reliably, safely and sustainably. So, we are trying to ensure that they know about our products.
Are you looking at engaging in commercial construction as part of your activities in the country?
We manufacture products and then have a regional network, and that is why we want to empower people here in Nigeria. We are looking for partners on full projects here, which is one of the areas of development that we are looking at. But the client decides what they want, approach a consultant who will basically design the electrical, fire and lighting specifications and the product is supplied. The ultimate goal is for the Nigerian economy to grow and for Eaton to grow with it.
We have multiple product lines and in each segment, we have competitors. So, the objective is to sell quality products and give quality services, and at the end of the day, we want to sell value. Our short term plan is education and the long term is also education and marketing. We want to create the brand Eaton in the minds of the people; we will be investing in energy. The whole idea is a long term investment, which will be beneficial to Nigeria.
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