By Jude Njoku

The new President of the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors, NIQS, Alhaji Murtala Muhammad Aliyu has charged members of the Institute to up the ante to ensure that the services they render to their clients meet international benchmarks.

Aliyu who spoke in Lagos at the 2013 annual dinner of the Lagos State chapter of the Institute, explained that due to the changing environment globally, most construction activities would come to the developing countries, hence professionals in the built environment must be build up their capacity to be able to bid for and win international jobs.

Stressing their importance of training in order to hone their skills, the NIQS President advised the construction cost experts to take advantage of such programmes or risk losing the juicy jobs to well organised expatriate companies.

As an Institute, what we need to do is first of all, to wake up our members and make them appreciate the limit of small size. I have associated with a Firm that has 4,800 professionals in the United Kingdom and it is a consulting firm and they bid for all kinds of jobs.

They have all sections of the built environment there, ranging from construction of roads, nuclear plants, housing estates, airports and so on. But the truth is that not just quantity surveying, even in other professions, there is no way we can sustain our operations in the market if we remain in small sizes.

There is a difference between professionalism and entrepreneurship and most of our services are still as you said one-man shows. Now is the time for us to talk together, using seminars and workshops to realise the limits of smallness and growth in size that can compete favourably internationally.

“As an Institute, what we need to do is first of all, to wake up our members and make them appreciate the limit of small size. I have associated with a firm that has 4,800 professionals in the United Kingdom and it is a consulting firm and they bid for all kinds of jobs.

They have all sections of the built environment there, ranging from construction of roads, nuclear plants, housing estates, airports and so on. But the truth is that not just quantity surveying, even in other professions, there is no way we can sustain our operations in the market if we remain in small sizes.

There is a difference between professionalism and entrepreneurship and most of our services are still as you said one-man shows. Now is the time for us to talk together, using seminars and workshops to realise the limits of smallness and growth in size that can compete favourably internationally,” he said.

Apparently referring to the crisis which the Institute grappled with a few years ago, the former Federal Minister of State (Power and Steel) sued for the unity of NIQS members. “Let’s unite, let’s come together and push the Institute forward. This is the only profession we all have. The period of stress is over; unity is key for us to move forward,” he said.

In his brief remarks, the chairman of the Lagos State branch of the Institute, Mr. Olayemi Shonubi stressed the role of quantity surveyors in the construction industry. He regretted that most Nigerians still do not understand the role of quantity surveyors in the construction industry, hence some of them end up not getting value for the money they expend on projects.