Experts seek inclusion of facility managers in projects

To ensure sustainable development and asset values, experts in the built environment have called for the integration of facility managers in the designing and conceptual stages of projects in the country.

They also called for the inclusion of facility management practitioners in board rooms of major companies and institutions to avoid wastes as well as guarantee end-users’ satisfaction.

These were fulcrum of discussions at the Maiden Advocacy Day organised by the Nigeria chapter of International Facility in Lagos.

Speaking at the event, themed: “Facility Management. A Panacea For A Sustainable Nation Building”, the deputy dean, Faculty of Environmental Services, University of Lagos, Dr Hikmat Koleosho said the importance of facility managers in the nation’s infrastructure space as champions of end users cannot be over emphasized.

Dr Koleosho said it is the function of facility managers to put themselves in this position and be able to bring in everything that is required at the design stage since recent research revealed that 90 percent of maintenance and facility management issues can be resolved at the design stage.

She called for a collaboration between the gown and town to ensure a guideline in bench making the operations of practitioners.

Also, the keynote speaker and chief executive officer, Green Facilities Limited, Mr Olumide Aina said integrating facility managers at the design stage will curtail wastages and ensure effective delivery to end-users.

He regretted that architects do not see facility managers as important in the building process forgetting that the construction stage takes only 10 per cent of the life cycle of infrastructure leaving the rest 90 percent to maintenance.

In her remarks, the General Manager of Lagos State Infrastructure and Assets Management Agency (LASIAMA), Mrs. Adenike Adekanmbi said Lagos state is focused on institutionalising maintenance of public infrastructure by creating a benchmark data.

The data, she said, will help in determining the appropriate cost of maintaining a building of any size.

For the Managing Director, Lagos State Development and Property Corporation (LSDPC), Mr. Adedoyin Har- Yusuph, there is a need for facility managers to collaborate with other professionals in the built environment since the profession is a multidisciplinary one and most of the maintenance problems are created during design stages.

He also called for a legislative framework for facility management across the nation as well as regular training for facility management in all levels of government.

Earlier, the acting president of IFMA, Nigeria chapter, Mr Olusegun Adebayo called for collaboration with institutions in the built environment to improve activities in the sector.

For the Deputy Governor of Osun State, Mr Benedict Alabi, who was represented by the Managing director of Eliezer Workplace Management Limited, David Korede, the government is desirous to work with facility managers to maximize the nation’s scarce resources in order to achieve sustainable infrastructural growth.

He stressed that Osun state is striving to build on the achievement of the last administration in the state in the area of infrastructure despite the limited resources to make the state the hub of investment.

For the chairman of the planning committee, Miss Iyabo Aboaba, the event was to provide a national platform for the promotion of national development.

She stressed that association is poised to the advocacy to the lower rungs of the society as statistics showed that more than half of Nigerian population does not really understand the importance of facility management.