Experts predict biggest opportunities for surveyors in FG’s new economic policy

The economic policy embarked upon by the Federal government, especially, the shift from dependency on oil to agriculture and exploration of mineral resources is said to have provides an enormous opportunities for the practising surveyors in Nigeria.

At their gathering last week, Association of Private Practicing  Surveyors in Nigeria (APSN), while identifying surveying as the bedrock of Sustainable Development Programme in any society, noted that meaningful development must, as a matter of necessity, have its roots in surveying.

Chairman of the Association, Mr. Odetunmibi Olufemi, at the annual workshop of the Association (APPSN), Lagos State branch, held at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Conference and Exhibition Centre, with the theme: “New Nigeria: The Roles, Right and Responsibility of Surveyors in National Re-Birth,” ascribed  the frequent, constant and often collapse of various infrastructure across the country to not having the right foundation.

According to him, the nation must realise that surveyors are better equipped to ensure that right foundation are put in place for all aspects of national development.

He therefore called on private practicing surveyors to continuously engage in training and development programmes in order to enhance  competence and high professional ethical

Chairman Nigerian Institution of Surveyors of Nigeria (APPSN) Lagos State branch, Mr Gbenga Alara charged all registered members of the Association to live by the ethics of the profession.

Alara, who is also a fellow of the institution urged surveyors to ensure that they continue to hold the ethics of the Profession in high esteem.  he said  that the workshop aside being a fulfillment of  mandatory professional requirements and responsibility among others , also serve as a forum for reminding practitioners of the need to maintain decorum and high professional ethics among members,

However, the Guest Speaker at the occasion, Chief Yemi Soladoye, a fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Arbitration, appealed  to surveyors to expand the horizon of practice beyond guiding construction and development projects or determination of  precise location of roads or buildings and proper depths for foundations.

Rather he see the role of surveyors as  nation builders who provide price guidance and risk classification on land and the environment.

While urging surveyors to develop a new mindset and conscious efforts to achieve  national re-birth, Soladoye said, it is the responsibility of surveyors in Nigeria to develop: ‘Hydrography’ and ‘Geodesy’  aspects of the profession

He admonished all registered that rather than see their job as just overseeing  the quantitative and metric aspects of  a project, adding that surveyors job should not end on approval of Survey plan pointing out that they have a responsibility to resolve the issue of fake certificate of Occupancy (C of O’s).

He advised surveyors’ in Nigeria have mastered the profession of surveying  but they have not  yet fully explored the Commercial and Strategic Roles of Surveying in Sustainable Development.

He berated practicing surveyors for indicating their responsibilities to the quacks, who he said are always on ground, while “they just sit in their offices and signing documents for the quacks.

“Instead of surveyors to employ quacks, the latter are now inadvertently employing the services of the former”, he said, adding that it’s time the practitioners stand up to their responsibilities.

Soladoye also urged Surveyors to tap into economic reconstruction embarked upon by the Federal government, adding that the paradigm shift from oil to agriculture and solid mineral resources.

“The new trend has to deal with land and surveyors are in best position to seize the initiative for individual  prosperity and and collective growth of the profession,” he counseled.