Surveyors move to check competition

Faced with stiff competitions among professionals, quacks and foreign practitioners, members of Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), have agreed to embrace partnership and best practices.

This impeccable transition started last week with a two -day Masters class and training summit organised by the Lagos branch of the institution.Speaking on the Educational Summit with the theme: ‘ Repositioning The Estate Surveying and Valuation Profession For Sustainable Growth, Turning the Practice into Business”, the Chairman of the branch, Olurogba Orimalade, said the event, the first of its kind in the institution’s history, is one of key programmes aimed at removing all trade tag in the estate surveying profession.

He stressed that the plan to hold master classes monthly on two key areas of specialization with focus on new techniques and modified version of international valuation standards.

This, he said, will bring practitioners in tandem with the international best practices and exposure in the world and held to bridge the gap in the professional practice in Nigeria.

NIESV President, Dr. Bolarinde Patunola-Ajayi said the only practitioners could stave off competition from foreign incursion, is to embrace partnership and re-training.

According to him, the practice has gone beyond the usual practice of to let, to, lease to sell, and has gone technical and scientific. Dr Patunola-Ajayi said more are being demanded from estate surveyors in terms of marketing and new trends, because only the most sophisticated can succeed, where there is no room for inefficiency.

“We must add value for any service if we are to survive. We must add service that are well beyond our profession”, he added.The president said the institution is now evolving new innovation to reposition the practice n Nigeria, while training will serve as a start up following the one held in Abuja, centering on road valuation aircraft valuation and infrastructure valuation.

According to him, estate surveyors need to show expertise to show that we are better than others including the foreign professionals in terms of human capacity and locality.He therefore called for collaboration among members for better opportunities, saying the openings are for them to enter government.

Expanding more on theme, a chartered accountant and one of the lead speakers, Mr. Abiodun Ariyib urged estate surveyors to embrace partnership to be able to compete.

He said the era of going it alone has gone because of the advantages of partnership.Ariyib, however advised those going on partnership to stick to their objective to avoid missing the mark. Contributing the second vice president of the institution, Mr. Emmanuel Wike said the council is doing its best to get prepared for partnership.