Experts enjoin surveyors to improve professional practice

Members of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) have been charged to upscale the practice and deploy technology towards transforming the profession from its rigid old system to more innovative ways of doing business.

The Chief Responsibility Officer at Elevator and Associate, Marie Therese Phido gave the charge at a forum organised for heads of practice by the Lagos State Branch of NIESV. She said the professionals must imbibe the culture of creativity, adaptability, emotional intelligence, persuasion, and marketing service skills, which are five skills companies, need most in 2020.

According to her, practitioners need to make people use their services by implementing modern changes as fast as the world is changing and run the ‘professional practice as a business’.

“We need to change and we can’t continue to do business as usual, change the curriculum of the profession in universities and stop teaching people methods but how to think creatively on what to add to the value chain in order to capture the market.”

Phido also advised the practitioners to focus more on partnership, corporation, and collaboration as essential models for promoting the profession amid the stifle competition from international players in the sector.

“Surveyors should discover the difference between partnership, collaboration, cooperation, and teamwork, know what a partnership and collaborative environment looks like, the six steps to make partnership and collaboration work, and understand the advantages of partnership and collaboration”, she stated.

The Vice-Chairman, Estate Surveyors and Valuers Registration Board of Nigeria (ESVARBON), Mr. Victor Alonge who x-rayed the practical guidance on the Green Book ‘compliant Valuation’, said its essence was to demonstrate that the profession is regulated, not in a purely bureaucratic sense, but that members perform their task in an organised manner, not maverick or inspirational, that they take care to educate themselves, and that they are subject to discipline.

He posited that property is an essential commodity, which is one of the three key factors of production that provides a strong base on which to build the profession.

However, he warned that “The profession is not a primary industry. The world can and will do without us. We have to persuade the market of the need for our services, then to advance our knowledge, techniques, and education to satisfy our employers. Then, through the perceived value of our contribution, to increase the influence which estate surveyors and valuers have on the society in which we live.

But we can only sell what we have to offer. We can only command respect and influence in society. We can’t demand it; our best way towards increasing influence is to regain the high ground of public respect and trust in all areas of our practice and in valuation professional service”.

“The Green Book provides us a unique opportunity to achieve this indispensable goal and elevate the practice of the profession in Nigeria to globally acceptable standards. It has come to stay and will continue to be a key part of our valuation practice in Nigeria. Practitioners must embrace the project whole-heartedly even at this very early stage”.

He said the immediate task before the profession, in Nigeria, is to increase its influence as valuers stressing that the Green Book is a set of mandatory rules and guidelines for Registered Surveyors and Valuers (RSVs) to follow when they are undertaking valuations and it imposed on individual Valuer (and firm) certain mandatory obligations regarding competence, objectivity, transparency, and performance.

The Chairman, Lagos Branch of NIESV, Adedotun Bamigbola said the forum became necessary to ensure that practitioners create a system that promotes an enviable practice that could compete globally. He stated that there was the need for continuous sensitization of members on the standard of valuation as contained in the Green Book, and partnership for practice.

He said the branch has initiated a mentoring process to groom young professionals and make them a strong brands for the built sector.