New CIPMN board to sanitise project management 

The newly inaugurated governing board of the Chartered Institute of Project Management of Nigeria (CIPMN) has vowed to ensure that quarks do not pose as project managers in the country.

Speaking shortly after the inauguration of the board in Abuja, yesterday, President of the Institute, Akin Babalola said that proper project management was essential to ensure project delivery in the right shape and time.

He added that the bane of Nigeria as a nation has always been its huge infrastructural deficit. 

“It is a known fact that the key to economic prosperity is infrastructural development. That is why we must be concerned about the quality of the people we trust with project management in this country,” he said. 

Referring to the leadership crisis that rocked the institute in the past, Babalola said there is no division in CIPMN as there is only one legally constituted leadership of the institute, recognised by the federal government and supervised by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.

He urged the public to beware of impostors who are parading themselves as leaders of the Institute, noting that the institute has instructed its lawyers to deal with this matter expressly and decisively. 

According to him, “Today is historic for the institute and I charge the council members to roll up their sleeves and get down to work because there is so much to do within a limited time.”

He called on President Bola Tinubu to recognise the institute as a partner in progress in the development agenda for Nigeria and promised that the institute is ready to support the government whenever it is called upon.”

On his part, chairman of the Governing Board, Emmanuel Olabode Afolayan said Nigeria as it is today needs everybody to put in his best.

He assured that the council members will put in their best to ensure that whatever is expected of them was delivered.

“I can assure you that in a short time, the narrative in this country will change for good,” he said.

Registrar of the Institute, Mr. Henry Ifeanyi Mbadiwe, said the days when individuals just walked up to a site and start delivering projects without proper accreditation was over. “We are now ready to ensure that only licensed project managers are allowed to head projects. Our Act empowers us to ensure that the project manager of any project whether in construction, ICT, engineering or whatever, must be the individual responsible for delivering or managing a project from end to end.”

He said the council will also take serious look at the content of training programmes for project managers by different training organisations.