Ahead of its 50th anniversary billed for September, the Nigeria Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) has announced plans to diversify the profession and improve on strategies for service delivery.
The institution also pledged to nurture the future generation of estate surveyors that would be capable of providing their services in the years ahead.
NIESV President, Sir Rowland Abonta who stated this at the unveiling of the institutions Golden Jubilee anniversary logo at the weekend in Abuja, observed that the estate surveyors and valuers have made immense contribution to the Nigerian built environment in the last 50 years, especially in valuation of all the assets in the public and the private sectors as well as in facility management.
According to him, NIESV was involved in the valuation of technical assets, plants and equipment of NNPC, valuation of buildings and other assets of federal and state governments as well as management of the assets of the federation.
Abonta noted that members of the profession have contributed in housing development and policy formulation. ‘’The profession has made history in diverse ways facility management, valuation, asset management, acquisition and payment of compensations. We are also bringing in new members into the profession through this golden jubilee program.’’
He said the problem of quacks in the profession has remained a major challenge, adding that the institution is proving a window through which those who are quacks could be trained in order to regulate them.‘’We are collaborating with law enforcement agencies to ensure that the issue of quackery is addressed,” he added.
Meanwhile, the institution is proposing stiffer sanction in form of fees penalty and publication of the names of erring members who flout the standing rule in national dailies and all its platforms. This followed widespread concerns as the trend keeps increasing among practitioners in cities like Lagos, Port-Harcourt and Abuja thereby demeaning the reputation of the profession in the eye of the public.
According to the profession’s practice guide, it is an offense for practicing members to display multiple boards on properties for lease/rent but standing punishment in that regard in the rulebook hasn’t been effective as members disobey the regulation unabatedly.
At a forum organized by the faculty of estate agency, a business division of NIESV, senior officials of the profession hinged the ineffectiveness of the regulation on stifling times vis-à-vis the influx of more informal agents into the property market, indiscipline and poor enforcement among others.
Speaking at the forum, a past President of the Nigerian Chapter of the International Real Estate Federation (FIABCI), Joseph Akhigbe declared that defaulter should be penalized with well-enforced sanctions and cases of a misdemeanor be reported through the right channels.
He stated that where multiple agents are commissioned to act on behalf of the principal with regard to the sale/letting of property, estate surveyors should be willing to collaborate with their colleague who are already working on behalf of the same client and come up with a single board displaying information pertinent to the sale of the property as well as contact details of both firms.
Akhigbe maintained that it was important for members to display professionalism in the discharge of their duties and ingrained in the consciousness of members of the society that they shouldn’t be treated as charlatans.
“There must be a collective effort on our part as members of this institution to practice self-discipline in our various activities, begin to adhere to set rules and regulations and employ best practices in the discharge of our duties, take the necessary action by reporting misdemeanor among colleagues and take appropriate action to sanction erring members. What builds your business is referrals, a satisfied customer would refer you to another”, he explained.
In his submissions, past Vice President, (Africa) International Real Estate Federation (FIABCI), Chief Kola Akomolede attributed the persistence of the issue on staff of most of the real estate firms whose management set targets for them to fulfill, activities of aggressive young practitioners and failures to report such cases to the national body of NIESV as well as lack of strict sanctions for defaulters. He stressed that the institution should henceforth publish the names of those who are cut in the act.
Corroborating Akomolede, a fellow of the institution, Mr. Chudi Ubosi said unless discipline and enforcement of sanctions that is just, fast and widely circulated is executed, the unprofessional conduct would continue.
Source: Guardianng
