Surveyors urge global benchmarking for professionals

To boost the industry, the President of the Nigerian Institute of Surveyors Obafemi Onashile has called on other professions in the construction sector to seek global benchmarking as a way of ensuring best practices in the sector.

Onashile said for the professions in Nigeria to make the desired impact in delivering of projects, practitioners must constantly benchmark what obtains in the country with other climes. He acknowledged the conscious efforts being made by the respective professional bodies towards Continuing Professional Development of their members and urged the seven professional bodies in the industry to subject their operations to global standards test as a sure way of improving capacities.

Onashile, stated this following the signing of a memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between NIQS and the Canadian institute on professional collaboration on the sidelines of the recently concluded 23rd Congress of the Pacific Association of Quantity Surveyors (PAQS) which held in Malaysia.

He said the signing of the reciprocity agreement is part of the current strategic reforms that the institute was championing as part of its contribution towards the growth of the Nigerian Construction Industry.

For him, with the endorsement by international Quantity Surveyors institutions across the globe, NIQS was now at par with global standards and its members now acceptable for employment anywhere in the world.

According to him, apart from Corporate Members or Fellows of the NIQS becoming members of CIQS and vice versa, there would also be opportunities for close collaboration on issues that bother on the profession as well as opportunities for training exchange between the two professional bodies.

“This reciprocity agreement/MOU aims at co-prosperity, the prosperity of the two bodies; the NIQS and the CIQS. The two bodies are working to leverage on our competences for mutual benefits. This includes, the opportunity for training exchange between the two countries. “By embarking on regular international benchmarking, professional bodies will be better able to boost the productivity of their members, streamline their project management skills as well as enhance quality and safety on projects,” Onashile said.

Speaking on the initiative, the Chairman of the Canadian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (CIQS), Mr. David Books observed that the institute and the NIQS shared many things in common including anniversary and membership assessment pathways, emphasising that records have shown that the NIQS maintained a very high standard of ethics.

“The execution of this reciprocity agreement cannot come at a better time than now when the Canadian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (CIQS) just celebrated marked its anniversary in parallel to that of Nigeria which would soon hold “, Books said.

On the benefit of the agreement, he said it would increase capacity to operate at an international level, improved projects management methods, increased ability to prepare, manage, and follow-up on projects, as well as a more attractive portfolio of opportunities for new members and fellows of each of the Institutes.