By kingsley adegboye

Built environment professionals in the country have been urged to make themselves relevant in order to benefit from the big construction jobs being embarked upon by the federal government.

Mr. Jim Obazee, Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer, Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, FRC, made the charge in a keynote address at the 8th Annual Distinguished Lecture of the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors NIQS, Lagos state chapter last week. He said the built environment professionals can only be seen to be relevant if they make themselves relevant, adding that they have a lot benefit from the ongoing economic transformation of the federal government.

Describing economic transformation as a time of re-negotiation, Obazee noted that negotiation itself, is a balance between collaboration and competition, pointing out that during periods of economic transformation, economic institutions are strengthened and new ones created. Explaining the impact of economic diversification on real estate and infrastructure, he said “We are an oil producing (and revenue-thereof dependent) nation.

We are currently engaging in many landmark projects such as Shopping Malls, Eko Atlantic city, Centenary city, World Trade Centre, low-cost housing estates. In fact, we also have man-made city as in Abuja. The planning principle in Nigeria and the integrated plan for the real estate industry may need to be reconciled”.

Using Bahrain as an example to illustrate the difficulty a developing country can face in meeting sustainability criteria while constructing its real estate, the FRC boss noted that “My request is that this event should deal with and produce proposals that can assist in building a people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented information society.