The Chairman, Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Lagos State branch, Musliudeen Agoro, has urged engineers to form consortia to handle big projects and help bridge Nigeria’s infrastructure gap.

Agoro made the call in an interview in Lagos.

Last year, President Muhammadu Buhari signed an Executive Order on local content to ensure that jobs that could be done by indigenous professionals were not given to foreign firms.

Agoro said the Executive Order empowers engineers, suppliers and  contractors to display their expertise.

He, however, called on the government to back Nigerians to enable the engineers to secure projects.

“The signing of the Executive Order was very encouraging, however, if there is no full support and backing from the government, it will be difficult for Nigerian local engineers to lead in execution of projects amid foreign contractors,” he said.

He said though there were consulting engineers in the country, they were just a few.

He suggested that where  engineers did not have the expertise, they could partner  with their foreign firms.