Town planners retool for efficient service delivery

When settlement experts popularly known as town planners converged on Ikeja, Lagos last weekend, the main goal was to re-strategise through professional training programmes to improve their capacities in the practice of the profession in the manner expected of optimum performance and of premium service delivery.

This, they achieve in the  two-day event, which drew participants  and resource persons across the country during the 22nd Edition of Mandatory Continuing Professional Development Programme (MCPDP), organised by the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP) and Town Planners Registration Council Of Nigeria (TOPREC).

Themed: Mastering Physical planning Services for Effective Performance, town planners were tasked on acquisition of new knowledge and skill development for new frontiers in the practice of the profession.

Sub-themes of the programme are, “Concepts, Issues and Challenges in effective service delivery; Understanding Urban and Regional Planning service deliverables; and Techniques for effective performance in Urban and Regional Planning service deliverables in consultancy service.”

Justifying the essence of the training programme, the National President of NITP, Mr Olutoyin Ayinde, described its theme as ‘very apt’, saying it sets to address the issue of good knowledge of the purpose of town planning.

He said the word ‘mastering’ from the theme refers to “someone who has control over something or someone’. “It also refers to an expert at something,” he said.

According to him, for town planners to perform effectively, including creating the required awareness, they would have to master the profession. To do this, he said they must make perfection their watchword in the whole gamut of issues that concerns them as physical/town/urban and regional planners.

This challenge, he said, has become imperative if town planners are to regain their pride of place at the coordinators of the built environment “where we have people who are academically and professionally sound.”

Resource persons at the forum included Lecturer in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Nassarawa State University, Keffi, Professor Timothy Gyuse; former President, Association of Town Planning Consultants of Nigeria, Olaide Afolabi; and Fellow of NITP, Dr Faith Ekong

TOPREC’s President, Ishaku Kura, who was represented by a council member, Mr Moses Ogunleye, said that professionals needed to sharpen their skills in response to new frontiers that require acquisition of new knowledge and skill development.

Kura said: “Conventional physical planning and development, you will agree with me, is characterised by such service deliverables as master plans, structure plans, sectoral action plans and regional plans.

“However, in response to new developments in governance, globalization, indigenous knowledge, environment and security, the scope of service deliverables has had to expand to include critical thinking and practices in such areas as community resilience, environmental impacts, social inclusiveness, gentrification, smart cities, mega cities, advocacy and security.”

Chairperson, 2020/2021 MCPDP programme, Dr. Catherine Uloko, said the thought of the programme was  conceived as a toll to generate, disseminate and impact knowledge on relevant contemporary issues with a view to enriching the information base and improve professional competence of town planners.

Kura commended the resource persons. Saying they had been fully selected to do justice to concepts and practices relating to mastering physical planning services for effective performance.

He stated that anyone who availed himself/herself to the opportunity the seminar offers would go back feeling satisfied for being better equipped for enhanced performance.

“For those in planning administration, they would have increased knowledge in collaboration, policy and governance. The private practice practitioners would have strengthened their capacity to adapt to new technology as well as launching into new areas,” Kura said.

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