… celebrates 2025 International Valuation Day
The Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) is seeking improved compliance of asset valuation with approved global standards to foster investors’ confidence, ensure financial stability in the country.
Speaking while celebrating the International Valuation Day 2025, the President and Chairman of NIESV, Victor A. Alonge, explained that “valuations are necessary for assessing the values of tangible assets, businesses, intangible assets, and financial instruments, all of which are essential for economic development.
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“International Valuation Day is a crucial advocacy push organised May 5 every year by the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers to reinforce awareness on the importance of valuation, highlight and espouse its critical contribution to economic development, and renew our call on decision makers at the public and private levels to imbibe the consciousness of valuation in their policy decisions.
“The question may be asked, why valuation? Valuation of properties and all assets for various purposes, be it for accounting (IPSAS), insurance, taxation, mortgages, and asset registers, like I mentioned earlier, is central, key and critical to economic development.
“Let us look at it from this perspective: every business entity reports financial activities on a yearly basis, including fixed and movable assets through valuation.
“Before public assets are disposed of, their true values must be determined, and this can only be known through valuation.
“As a matter of fact, public procurement in Federal and state government activities has made it compulsory that valuation must precede the process.
“No bank will take your real estate as collateral without knowing its value. And it may interest you to know that once you get the valuation wrong, so many other things will automatically go wrong, and that should be a major concern to all stakeholders in the process. So valuation must be real, accurate, and credible.”
Alonge stated that the heart of global best practices in valuation is the International Valuation Standards (IVS), which is promoted by the international valuation standards council, of which the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers is an active member.
“The IVS upholds the highest principles of clarity, reliability, and comparability in asset pricing and reporting.
He further explained that “the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) has continued to play an active and leading role in raising awareness of asset valuation services globally as a member of The International Valuation Standards Council (IVSC).
“The IVSC, though founded by only 20 national valuation professional organisations (VPO) in Melbourne, Australia in 1981, currently boasts more than 200 member organisations and 70 valuation professional organizations (VPO) across more than 137 countries. We at NIESV are proud to be one of the 70 VPOS globally.
“The current state of the Nigerian economy requires that the nation, as well as its various components, look more closely at the significant benefits of appropriate professional asset valuation to its economic development agenda.
“Asset valuation is undoubtedly key to unlocking those potentials and identifying the inherent resources available for the benefit of not just this generation, but also future generations in a sustainable manner. It is very clear to us as valuers that valuation can provide a key to the puzzle that is being solved,” he stated.
The President noted that the “theme of the 2025 celebration was chosen to act as a catalyst for expanded awareness across various sectors of society, tapping into the vast and inherent benefits of valuation in the everyday lives of ordinary Nigerians.
“Nigeria is currently behind in undertaking a credible valuation of its national assets. We acknowledge that steps are being taken towards that realisation, but we believe much more needs to be done to achieve that objective.
“Permit me to also say that before imposing tax on an asset, you have to determine its true worth, its value, which must be firm and reliable.
“The value of the asset would indicate the percentage of tax you place on it. And that makes the theme for 2025 International Valuation Day “Tax Reform for National Economic Prosperity: Why Valuation Matter” critical and appropriate.
“Critical and appropriate in the sense that it comes at the time the government is churning out policies to re-engineer the nation’s challenged economy, one of which is tax reforms”.
Alonge said in actual fact, a bill to that effect is before the national assembly for consideration and passage. The significance of this theme, therefore, lies in the fact that it offers a roadmap to financial stability, inasmuch as valuation is crucial to the enhancement of government revenue through the instrumentality of taxation.
“Note that accurate and precise tax cannot be obtained without credible asset valuation. Valuation is very key to the process, to the extent that it has to do with the determination of the true value of assets, and the exact tax to be imputed on the assets. I would be right to say then, that valuation is key to the success of the proposed tax reforms
“That makes estate surveyors and valuers critical partners to government in the proposed tax reform regime, and this tells me that without the role and influence of estate surveyors and valuers within the Nigerian context, it would be very difficult for the nation to advance in economic development.
“Let me reemphasise that the enabling law for the practice of our profession, the Estate Surveyors & Valuers Registration Board of Nigeria Decree No. 24 of 1975, now CAP E13 LFN 2007, recognises the practice of valuation as the sole prerogative of estate surveyors and valuers.”
NIESV plans a week-long conference to further discuss ways to improve compliance in Nigeria.
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