Says turn dormant land asset into valuable asset

By Chris Ochayi

ABUJA: Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has charged professionals in the estate surveyors and valuers practice to urgently develop agenda that will ensure seamless regulation of the practice.

Fashola, who gave the charge while inaugurating the reconstituted Estate Surveyors and Valuers Registration Board of Nigeria, ESVARBON, the weekend in Abuja, further charged them on integrity and professionalism.

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The minister also urged the professionals to develop an open evaluation for the different parts of the country as well as evolve means of making the practice of estate valuation simple enough to the ordinary.

According to him, “As we reconstitute the new board and as we work together to rebuild our economy, I urge you to be as professional as you were trained to be.

“So, I will like to see, therefore, that as you take up the mantle of leadership today after the inauguration, these are issues that I think you should put into the front burner agenda in terms of how you regulate the practice and also the quality of people that you admit to the practice.

The minister noted that ”The importance and professional mandate of Estate Surveyors and Valuers in the economic growth of the country are really to put a value on land.

The main business that they undertake is the business of how land is turned from a dormant asset really into a valuable asset.”

He further said that all of those who are involved in one form of enterprise or the other must, first of all, appreciate the value of land as a major capital formation asset; whether it is for small businesses, whether it is for large corporations.

In his remarks, the Chairman Estate Surveyors and Valuers Registration Board of Nigeria ESVARBON Gersh Henshaw said that since March this year when the baton in the leadership of the board changed hands, they have been off the ground running to fulfill the mandates of the board as it is statutorily provided in our enabling Act.

“As first point attention to infrastructure growth, we have had the groundbreaking/foundation laying ceremony for the development of our corporate head office.

”The development of the office on our land at Jahi District in Abuja will mark the end of accommodation and its expenditures on service charge incurred by the board.

“We have revised the Valuation Reporting Temple produced by the board in 2015. The revision is not only to maintain a uniform and standard reporting format by valuers in the country but also to keep pace with the dynamics of time and changes in the global marketplace.

“We have recently inducted over 200 (213 to be specific) fit and proper persons as registered Estate Surveyors and Valuers. Although this has increased the number of registered persons in the country,” Mr. Henshaw added.

He further said that ESVARBON is poised to maintain sound professional conduct by keeping vigilance to ensure that practitioners ply the trade of their practice according to the rule and regulations.