The maiden Africa Construction and Development Conference opened in Accra on Thursday with a call on contractors to improve technical capacity and eschew shoddy work so as to earn the trust of the public.

Nii Nortey Dua, the Deputy Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, said delayed projects and wrong classification that members were often accused of was a dent on the work of contractors.

More than two hundred participants from Ghana and other African countries are participating in the maiden two-day conference. It is to create a platform for contractors, built environment professionals and stakeholders in the construction industry on the continent to deliberate on how to develop the industry.

The conference is a prelude to the second edition of the National Contractors Excellence Awards slated for Saturday November 10.

Nii Nortey Dua said the country stood on the threshold of a massive infrastructure development to meet the growing needs of the increasingly urban population which would require an organised group of contractors to see the agenda through.

He said it was important that indigenous contractors built their skills and seeped in best practices so that government could rely on them to undertake the projects.

“We are also hopeful that our indigenous firms will partner others from the continent and elsewhere to ensure that they are strong enough to be the major players,” he said.

Nii Nortey Dua called on the Association of Building and Civil Engineering Contractors of Ghana (ABCECG) to dialogue with government on the call for a regulatory body for the construction industry so that together they could develop a road map for the way forward.

Mr Martins Nnuro, President of the ABCECG, said the collapse of the building housing the Melcom supermarket reinforced the Association’s call for a regulatory body to check poor and substandard delivery on construction works and promote excellence.

He said if the construction industry had a regulatory body chances were that there would be proper supervision and the sad accident and lives that were lost would have been avoided.

About 20 speakers and discussants from Egypt, South Africa, Malawi, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Ghana will address participants on issues bordering on the growth and development of the construction industry, with the objective of creating construction giants on the continent of Africa.