Association of Facilities Management Practitioners, Nigeria, has decried the upswing in natural disasters as well as climate change, and asserted that consistent maintenance can help construction specialists mitigate their effects on infrastructure.

President of AFMPN, Mr Paul Erubami, warned that no sustainable economic development could be achieved without a viable maintenance strategy.

Erubami said it was environmentally friendly and a stimulus to local economies.

He said this at the 3rd Annual AFMPN Conference themed: ‘The Maintenance Economy and the Built Environment: The Role of Facility Management,’ organised by AFMPN in Abuja, recently.

The AFMPN boss suggested that in the maintenance of the economy, the focus of the resources should be on preservation and upgrading of existing infrastructure instead of new constructions for a specified period.

His words: “This is an approach that is currently developing all over the world because it can meet a way forward towards development that is sustainable.

“In the maintenance and upgrading of our prevailing assets, we lengthen their useful life by reducing their environmental impacts and identifying considerable cost savings.

“The strategy also is not just economically viable but also environmentally friendly. This is an ideology that is catching up extremely fast globally due to its presentation of a sustainable way of development. In essence, the maintenance economy is all about changing attitudes: building culture for maintaining culture.

“The awareness has been on an increase from Nigeria to the rest of the world that no sustainable development could be possible without a viable maintenance strategy.

“This includes routine care, timely repair, and strategic upgrading of available structures. Maintenance will go a long way in extending useful life into the available assets, reducing environmental impacts, and saving a substantial amount of money in the process. Doing this becomes not only economically prudent but also ecologically correct.”

According to him, maintenance births economic stabilisation.

He added: “Infrastructure maintenance offers the opportunity to be an investment that generates good-paying jobs to become an economic stimulus to the local economies. Besides, skilled labour needs in executing the maintenance activities led to the perpetuation of employment and professional growth in the community.

“More crucially, good infrastructure attracts investments, business expansion, and gives an excellent living standard for the citizens. At this time of natural disasters, climate change, and all other such hostile happenings, needs a well-maintained infrastructure, adding that it is an added advantage in such life cycles to be more resistant or recoverable, which is important for sustaining continuity of service and ensuring community safety.

“The maintenance economy then relates to the caretaking and optimisation of an asset in operation at large. To be sustainable, it must be economically stable and resiliently striving to form one of the new axes of modern facility management.”

Meanwhile, the AFMPN boss announced the Facility Management MasterCraft Diploma Graduation Ceremony, describing that it will be held at the Conference Hall, HRDC Building, University of Lagos, Main Campus, Akoka, Lagos, on December 14, 2024, to celebrate outgoing graduates.