By Kingsley Adegboye

Estate Surveyors and Valuers Regulation Board of Nigeria (ESVARBON), last week held 2025 edition of its annual Valuers’ Assembly in Lagos where estate survayors and valuers as well as stakeholders in built environment gathered to brainstorm on regulatory issues to ensure a sustainable built environment.

The theme of the 2025 annual Valuers’ Assembly is “Fifty Years of Regulatory Excellence: Golden Legacies and Brighter Tomorrow.” Sub-themes are “Ethical Dilemmas Amongst Practitioners, ESG, Technology andValuations Best Practices”

The Keynote Speaker, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai (rtd.), while speaking said: “My perspective today is shaped by a background in national security. I will therefore, discuss the theme through a unique lens: the powerful nexus between professional estate valuation, national economic health, and our collective security.”

According to the former Chief of Army Staff, looking at the contemporary challenges of estate surveying and valuation, the profession faces a multi-front engagement such as the insurgency of quackery which leads to the prevalence of unqualified individuals undermining credibility and defrauding the public. Others include the theatre of technological disruption, the fog economic volatility, intellingent gap and many more challenges.

However, he noted that a call to action for a brighter tomorrow to secure the profession’s legacy and amplify the role of estate surveyors and valuers in nation building, Buratai said he would propose strategic recommendations such as embracing technology as a force multiplier which leads development of Nigeria-specific tech tools to create a central, securedatabase for property transactions.

Launch “operation clear the holdouts” against quackery, meaning partner aggressively with security and law enforcement agencies to prosecute individuals practising illegally.

Forge strategic alliances: By this he said estate surveyors and valuers should formalise their relationship with the EFCC, NFIU, and the Ministry of Interior.

He said the next 50 years of ESVARBON must be defined by strategic relevance. “You are not merely appraisers of buildings and land, you are custodians of national wealth and guardians of our economic security. Your profession holds a key to a more secure, prosperous, and transparent Nigeria.”

In his welcome speech, the acting chairman of ESVARBON, ESV. (Prof.)Terzungwe Dugeri, said “You agree with me that as a regulatory agency, we believe in the inculcation of strong ethical conduct among practitioners ra[emains our best means of protecting the public good we are enttrusted with and setting estste survying and valuation profession on the pedestal for a people-compact service delivery.

“We must also add that the three issues of environment, sustainability and governance (ESG), which today resonates globally as cardinal pivots for accountability must take centre-stagein the practice of estate surveying and valuation in Nigeria.”

Also remarking, chairman of the professional practice committee, ESV. Dr. Aminu Waziri, said the annual even is the best time to align with the global best practices in valuation and property profession.

According to Waziri, “It may interest this honourable gathering to note that an an estate surveyor and valuer has recently developed and launched an app (the property estimator) that facilitates the real-time application of technology in valuation, signifying a new dawn in the valuation process and approach.”

In her remarks, ESVARBON Registrar, ESV. Janet Shehu said: “We are here today for Valuers’ Assembly, an annual programme where estate surveyors and valuers meet to brainstorm and appraise ourselves; to look at issues, topical issues in the industry, and deliberate on matters that affect us in terms of ethics, standards, and other professional issues that make our profession to thrive in the built industry.

“This gathering has revisited issues on integrity, transparency, disclosure and confidentiality. So, I expect my colleagues to take advantage of the discourse to keep themselves abreast of rules and regulations of the Board, and the standards of practice that are expected of them.

“The Board expects highest level of compliance to ethical standards in every aspect of the profession. We are in a digital age. Therefore, our members must embrace technology, because globally we are talking about artificial intelligence and a lot of technological factors that are affecting our practice.”