Practitioners under the auspices of the Association of Town Planning Consultants of Nigeria (ATOPCON) have been urged to position themselves for the creation of sustainable urban environments to drive cities’ growth and expand small businesses.
With their current knowledge, experience and sophistication, former UN-Habitat Programme Manager for Nigeria, Kabir Mohammed Yari, said the sky is the limit for them to contribute to the nation’s sustainable urban development and urban sustainability in Nigeria.
Contributions of town planning consultants, he said were pivotal in shaping the future of Nigeria’s cities and ensuring their sustainability.
He urged the settlement experts to consolidate their positions to make their firms multi-sectoral and multi- professional, and to invest in Information Communication Technology too and equipment.
“Sometimes, forming a consortium of two or more firms is advisable to handle big and complex assignments. This will enable firms to pool their experiences and resources together.
“This is necessary as the number of millionaire cities in Nigeria will be 23 in 2050,” he said.
Yari, a former President of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP), who doubles as the guest speaker during the Annual General Meeting of ATOPCON, held in Ibadan, Oyo State, said that available evidence shows that there was a rapid population increase in Nigeria, and has been estimated that by 2050, the population of Nigeria will reach 403 million.
“The unfortunate thing was that most policy makers, city authorities, professionals and urban planners are yet to come to terms with this reality and its implications on unban expansion and liveability,” he said.
According to him, if immediate action is not taken to plan for the additional population that will be residing in urban areas, the situation would exacerbate unplanned urban growth and expansion that will make the settlements prone to urban sprawl, inefficient land use, poor connectivity and lack of adequate municipal services.
“The urbanisation rate will reach 70 per cent, and the number of cities with a population of one million and above will increase to 23,” he said.
If the increasing population/urban expansion is unattended to, the expert said it meant that cities would be constrained towards achieving sustainable development.
To arrest the situation, Yari said there was an urgent need to plan in advance so that the population and urban growth can be adequately guided, and the benefits of planned urbanisation will accrue to the country.
The theme of the annual meeting is: “Fostering Urban Sustainability and Development Through Effective Town Planning Service Delivery in Nigeria: The Role of Town Planning Consultants.”
Yari listed inability to identify core issues, inappropriate or outdated planning approaches and tools, weak plan development and implementation capacity, legal frameworks that do not provide sufficient tractions for plans, and plans that do not allow sufficient time for their implemention, rapid population and urban growth, different views of sustainable developments, the informal sector, sustainable mobility information and monitoring, lack of capable institutions, financing urban development, issues of access to land, and global environmental challenges as major obstacles to effective urban planning.
To address the obstacles, Yari called on city authorities to take urgent measures to upgrade informal settlements and plan in advance to prevent the formation of slums.
To ensure sustainable mobility, he urged that Nigerian cities would need more organized public transport and non-motorised options to combat the challenge.
“Infrastructure for walking and cycling must be improved,and development should minimize travel demand.
“Urban observatories can be established to create databases that track needs and monitor policy impact,” he said.
To ensure proactive urban growth management, he called on state governments to strengthen urban institutions, while canvassing the establishment of adequate arrangements for sourcing funding for infrastructure development.
Earlier, President of ATOPCON, Mr. Muyiwa Adelu, said that as consultants, how to sustain Nigerian cities and urban centres have become imperative that they cannot do without.
He urged professionals on the need to improve town planning service delivery in Nigeria.
Adelu explained that the annual general meeting remained a forum to assess the success of the association and its accomplishment till date, serving as an avenue to bring planning firms, consultants and like-minded professionals together to deliberate on pressing issues and find lasting solutions to them.
President of NITP, Nathaniel Atebije, urged consulting town planners to practice with diligence, noting that the practice environment currently has a lot of tumbling.
According to him, members’ firms needed to practice with high level of integrity.
Chairman of ATOPCON, Oyo State Chapter, Taiwo Oyelami , while welcoming members wished the incoming executives successful tenure.
Meanwhile, the guest speaker also pointed out that opportunities abound in addressing the issue of unplanned and uncoordinated urban growth, saying that town planning consultants are required to produce master and structure plans, area and subject plans, detailed plans and urban renewal plans.
“Nigerian governments need to adopt a planning-to- investing methodology to ensure the effectiveness of interventions and their long-term benefit for the city’s population,” he said.
He also listed that conduction of empirical research and the use of information communication technology in town planning, urging that Nigerian cities should integrate evidence and data-based planning into all urbanisation management to effectively address critical issues such as solid waste management. flood control and traffic management.
He stated that the shortage of skilled and trained town planners remain’s a pressing issue that demands immediate attention, noting that Nigerian town planners, especially those in the public service require training and capacity building to enhance their plan preparation, implementation monitoring and evaluation expertise.
“In addition, they ought to acquire knowledge about ICT to apply technology for data collection, impact assessment, and establishing urban information systems. A training needs assessment must be conducted to ensure that the training is relevant to the beneficiaries and institutions.”
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