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Estate surveyors urged to rescue degenerating slums in cities

By Victor Gbonegun
19 August 2019   |   4:09 am
Disturbed by the depleting status of Nigerian cities, estate surveyors have been urged to establish advocacy group that would influence policies and promote strategies...

New executive committee members of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), Lagos State branch during their investiture at Lagos Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Disturbed by the depleting status of Nigerian cities, estate surveyors have been urged to establish advocacy group that would influence policies and promote strategies, which will respond to the urbanisation challenges.

Chairman, Radeon Investment Limited, Mr. Adeniji Raji, an engineer, gave this charge during the 26th investiture of the new chairman and executive committee members of Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), Lagos State branch.

Raji lamented that urban developments are rapidly becoming slums because of lack of proper planning in the provision of necessary infrastructure, water and sanitation, power, transportation, open spaces and waste management.

He reinforces that the advocacy group, will protect the real estate industry and livelihoods, adding that the institution should provide leadership in the mobilisation of a wide range of stakeholders, and the formation of multi-stakeholder partners to address this critical issue in Lagos State.

Specifically, he stated that practitioners should key into the New Urban Agenda which set global standards of achievement in sustainable urban development, provides a rethinking in the way people build, manage, and live in cities through drawing together cooperation with committed partners, relevant stakeholders, and urban actors at all levels of government”.

Speaking on the need for integrity in dealing with clients, he posited that following the new anti-money laundering law, estate agents now have to scrutinise buyers’ finances to ensure they are not buying property with dirty money. But there is concern that estate agents are not fully aware of their responsibilities in this regard.

“Money laundering at the highest level affects us all, as it steals money from you and me and erodes trust and confidence in our leaders, and the very worst thing we can do is to keep silent about it. I charge this gathering to come up with measures as to how we can establish transparency over who owns property or the companies that own which property in the country.”

On his part, the keynote speaker, Mr. Bode Adedeji, a past NIESV president, who emphasised on quality leadership, asked the new administration to lead by inspiring members’ accountability, creativity and empathetic with practitioners in decision making as well as re-engineer positive changes to make the industry and Nigeria great.

Earlier, NIESV President, Rowland Abonta had charged the branch through its leadership to strengthen unity among members as other branches look up to it as the best in the institution.

He told them that the national body was working hard to reverse any form of overtaking of estate surveyors and valuers constitutional duties by other professionals.

In his acceptance speech, the new chairman, NIESV Lagos branch, Mr. Adedotun Bamigbola observed that the real estate sector has witnessed uneven growth in the country as a result of limited regulation inspite of its huge potential and partly because the institution needs to take more seriously it’s leadership role in the sector.

Consequently, he said his tenure would pursue five key elements namely, research and development, strategic partnership with both public and private sector, capacity development, members’ welfare and growth as well as special projects and programmes.

Highpoints of the event was the launch of the Dyslexia Awareness Support programme with the Dyslexia Foundation Nigeria, the institution awareness campaign stickers and presentation of mantle of leadership to the new leadership/executives.

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