By Jude Njoku

Against the backdrop of the epileptic state of public infrastructure in Africa due to the dearth of funds to finance their provision or replacement, Nigerian Quantity Surveyors last week, renewed the call for the establishment of an African Infrastructure Development Bank, AIDB or African Construction Development Bank, ACDB.

The construction cost experts who rose from a two-day international workshop on sustained growth of emerging economies in Africa – the infrastructural imperatives, in Oshogbo, the Osun state capital, said the proposed bank will provide the funds for infrastructure development similar to existing models in China, India and Malaysia.

The proposed bank will provide the much-needed long-term finance at low interest rate to contractors, subcontractors and suppliers.

The bank, the cost experts recommended, should  be private-sector driven to minimise bureaucracy while Government provides “seed money.”

The quantity surveyors posited that “ for any African nation striving to belong to the top 20 nations by the year 2020, efficient cost management culture must be imbibed as a national policy”.

Noting that governments cannot bear the financial burden of providing adequate infrastructure alone considering the huge capital out-lay required, the quantity surveyors  called for the integration of private sector investors into the conception, planning, design, construction and maintenance of infrastructure through the public-private-partnership, PPP  procurement model.

A 14-point communique signed by the President of the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors, NIQS, Alhaji Murtala Aliyu, the Secretary Marketing & Publicity, Mr Olujide Oke and the Secretary, Professional Development & Library, Dr Ejike Anunike, recommended  that effective and efficient management of infrastructure projects in Africa should be given prominence and high priority by governments, organizations and individuals.

“There should be massive investment to address the challenges and short-falls. Because cost is essential, the services of quantity surveyors are inevitable and imperative in all aspects of infrastructure projects including budgeting, financing and management in order to get value for money invested,” they posited.

The cost experts also called for a systematic review of professional fees charged by quantity surveyors and other professionals in the built environment to serve as motivation to them to play the much-desired roles in efficient and effective delivery of infrastructure projects

”Collaboration among professional bodies, the professionals and even client organizations involved in infrastructure development is imperative for eradicating fraudulent practices and eliminating areas of disagreement in the documentation and cost management of infrastructural projects.

The collaboration between the professional bodies provides professional synergy that will create added value for money and aggregate cost-savings for improved infrastructural development,” they said.

They recommended the appointment of quantity surveyors in the departments of finance, budget and/or planning of all ministries at all levels of government to ensure probity and accountability of public funds invested in infrastructure.