The Nation Newspaper

Category: Building & Properties

  • Firm unveils Festac plaza

    Firm unveils Festac plaza

    A new multi-purpose shopping plaza has berthed in FESTAC area, Lagos. Known as Daphina Place, it sits on half an acre of land (three plots), with the capacity for 500 shoppers at a go. It also has car park with capacity for 70 cars.

    With an installed 100 KVA GMG generator, shoppers to the multimillion naira one-stop shopping mall are assured of comfort while shopping. The mall houses a unisex salon; supermarket, massaging spa, pharmacy and a DSTV outlet among others.

    At the inauguration of the imposing plaza, located on Fourth Avenue of the Festival Town, the promoter of the mall, Prince Lewis Osobase, said: “The mall offers a relief for residents who desire good items and basic services without going through stress. It is a multi-purpose mall with a superstore, fashion shop, unisex salon and spa. It is a one-stop shop that caters to the needs of all strata of people regardless of their diverse taste,” he said, with a promise to further improve the facilities to ensure that diverse teeming patrons are satisfied.

    Dedicating the mall, Venerable Israel Owoyele of the Church of Pentecost (Anglican Communion), Festac, noted that the long years it took to actualise the project was a testimony that God is the only one that can see any man through projects in life.

    The plaza was opened with fanfare including a road show within Festac town while shoppers trooped out to purchase items at the mall.

  • Ogun warns illegal miners

    Miners without the requisite approval by the state government risk  sanctions, the Ogun State government has said.

    The warning came on the heels of the continued operation of unlicensed miners. The government advised miners  to follow due process by obtaining necessary documents for their work.

    The Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Bolaji Oyeleye, spokewhile inspecting an illegal mining site at Atan Ota in Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area (LGA) of the state.

    Oyeleye, who was represented by the Head of Environmental Task Force Team B, Mr. Kunle Adeotan, said miners should desist from illegal mining as it leads to desertification, flooding and other natural disasters.

    “Miners should desist from illegal mining to avoid desertification, flooding and other natural disasters,” Oyeleye said.

    The Commissioner, in a statement signed by the Ministry’s Press Officer, Mrs. Patience Idowu, said the miners  at the site were doing so without mining lease, Environmental Impact Assessment certificate and other requisite documents.

    She said the government would not watch such illegality in any other part of the state.

    Mrs Idowu urged miners to get the documents.

  • Queens’ Garden Estate to deliver 248 units in 10 months

    As part of its contribution to reducing the housing stock in the country, a firm of estate developers, Landmark Corporate Reality Limited, has held a ground-breaking of its Queens Garden Estate in Isheri North 3 in Government Reservation Area (GRA), Ogun State.

    The ceremony signals the commencement of construction in the estate situated close to Berger Bridge on the Lagos end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

    The new scheme, its promoters claim, is to be developed using the newest technology. Landmark promises to deliver 120 units of five-bedroom fully detached duplex; 128 units of four-bedrooms semi-detached spread houses across 10 hectares of lush and very green landscape, in 10 months.

    Landmark Corporate Realty Limited Chairman, Dr. Oluwatayo Fashogbon, explained that his firm had come up to help the government and individuals to realise their dreams by making housing available for them. Such assistance with housing units to Nigerians, Fashogbon said, began  seven years ago with the Queens Park Estates in Mowe, Ofada, Shimawa and in Abuja.

    “We strongly believe this will help them and help the government to reduce housing deficit in the country. Isheri North is very strategic because it is on the mainland and there are lot of Lagos and Ogun states housing developers participating in affordable housing delivery. Queens Garden Estate is surrounded by estates like Lonex Garden and LSDPC and it is one of Lagos mainland’s fast developing residential area,” he explained.

    Fashogbon added that the estate set a high-level benchmark in service delivery, infrastructure, eco-friendliness, functionality and loftiness. Besides, he revealed that it would accommodate various housing typologies of contemporary architecture, Victorian aesthetics, modern and a peep into the post-modern concepts. The varying concepts and facades included, he further explained, will eliminate the barrack-like look usually associated with some housing estates, giving a sort of mosaic bespoke architecture.

    “The uniqueness of this estate dwell largely on its ability to reinvent the concept of old Government Reservation Areas, with cutting edge architecture, while delivering high-class living standards at affordable prices,” he said.

    Similarly, Landmark Corporate Realty Managing Director, Dr. Harrison Agboifoh, said Queens Garden is not just another estate but one with an epitome of beauty and style.

    He said the estate offers an idyllic environment for good residential living upon the completion of all neighbourhood infrastructure.

    The estate, as part of its uniqueness, has quick access and connecting road network to every part of Lagos and Ogun metropolis.

    “It has paved roads , electricity, drainage system,CCTV security, network, treated water supply, perimeter fencing, street light, illumination among others,” Agboifoh explained.

    The Queens Estate is divided into two schemes: the Elizabeth Court and Diana Court. The former is the five-bedroom fully-detached house. Each unit sells for N49 million for outright payment, and N53.3 million by instalments of up to 18 months.

    Diana Court is a four-bedroom semi-detached house selling at N46 million for payment and N50 million for instalmentals of 18 months.

  • Stakeholders ask architects for practical, affordable blueprints on slums

    Architects  need to redefine themselves within the community in which they live. They need to rethink their relevance in serving the citizenry of Lagos as it is. They need to think ‘Out of the Box’ to ensure that Lagos slum areas are included in the designed built-environment, otherwise, regeneration of true Nigerian Architecture will be impossible and extinction becomes imminent.”

    This was the submission of participants and stakeholders in the architecture industry at the just concluded Lagos Architects Forum 2017 tagged: LAF 8.0. It held at the Jasmine and Zinnia Halls, Expo Centre of the Eko Hotel & Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos. An estimated 2,300 participants from the building construction sector, other industries and parts of the country attended the event.

    The theme of the conference,  “Lagos 8.0 – An Architectural Autopoiesis,” focused on the issues of regeneration, rebuilding, recreating and re-inventing the built environment in general and addressing housing challenges in particular in the light of the present economic recession in the country.

    In a communique at the end of the forum, architects were urged to reposition themselves and their profession as the driver of the new revolution. This should be with a view to moving the state to a new pedestal that will solve the myriad of housing challenges being faced by the low income groups, and indeed the slum areas of the state.

    Given the prevailing economic challenges in the country, stakeholders  also urged architects not to only serve the elite, who can afford to pay for their services, but  extend their services to the low and middle income citizens, who constitute more than 70 per cent of the populace. Engaging in this, it is believed, will have collateral advantages of being more relevant to the society, help in reducing the slums and blighted areas and in the long run, create suitable jobs for architects.

    Participants at the conference also admonished architects to be in the vanguard of leading advocacy to form lasting policies that affect the built environment and its current challenges, as the issue of homelessness remains an embarrassment to the nation and indeed the megacity of Lagos State. Architects were also urged to think “out of the box” in producing practical and affordable blueprints that had scientific and empirical data basis in solving the ‘Nigerian Problem’ in a contextual way.

    Stakeholders at the conference also had words for the government: Government needs to ensure that well trained, qualified and registered relevant professionals, architects, engineers and planners were deployed for the task of enforcing efficient  control systems for vetting, processing and approval of design drawings,  ahead.

    The communique also noted the continuous exponential increase in Lagos State population and the challenges of land for development matter and called on the government to muster all political will for the provision of real affordable and sustainable housing for the vulnerable, the poor and the low income citizenry.

    The communique further held that in view of the on-going economic recession and the astronomical increase in the cost of imported building materials, stakeholders in the construction and built environment were urged to engage more pro-actively in the research and development of local building materials, such as  bamboo for structural work and lateritic clay soil for stabilised bricks on a commercial basis. This, they said, is necessary, as no housing solution can be sustainable on the current or floating foreign exchange rates.

    Earlier in her keynote address at the conference, a former Provost, College of Medicine and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Development) University of Lagos, Prof. Sade Ogunsola, who spoke on the topic:“AnArchitectural Autopoiesis- the Linkage of the built environment to non-living social autopoietic systems”, said autopoietic systems included second level social systems made up of societies, organisations and interactions. “They reproduce themselves from within themselves, a recursive reproduction of its elements through its elements, meaning that architects as part of non-living autopoietic systems have no option but to reorganise themselves irrespective of their different school of thoughts,” she explained.

    Ogunsola said from various extrapolation, Lagos will have a population of 300 million people by 2050 and become the third largest city in the world by then. Given this situation, she said what should be of concern is how architects plan to cope with these large numbers, especially as 70 per cent of the population live in the slums.

    “Architects are, therefore, by implication, responding to only 30 per cent of the population and in reality only a third of this number. If architects do not regenerate themselves and attend to the 70 per cent of Lagosians who require decent and healthy shelter even within their present existing environment, they would have failed in the autopoietic social system in which they operate,” she submitted.

  • API Awards to recognise top real estate developments

    The African Property Investment Awards (API Awards), the continent’s premier real estate competition, is set to recognise innovation and outstanding achievement across the entire property industry. It will also provide distinguished developers, suppliers and owners working in Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding South Africa) with a platform to showcase their best projects and services.

    The award is scheduled to hold at the Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa, on August 24, 2017.API Events have proven their commitment to the African property industry, hosting successful and insightful summits for the last eight years. As an independent organisation offering broad coverage of the African real estate sector, API Events have a reputation for fostering education, discussion and knowledge sharing throughout the industry, making them the ideal hosts for these prestigious awards.

    API Events Managing Director Mr. Kfir Rusin said that looking back on the last decade, there have been notable achievements in the development of real estate on the continent.According to him, growth in the sector has highlighted the important role both local and regional investors and developers play in the industry.

    “With this in mind, API Events has moved to introduce an awards platform that is both reputable and widely respected in order to recognize these achievements, as well as the distinction and quality of these contributions,” Rusin explained.He said that with these awards, API Events hopes to not only encourage industry players to continue to achieve these same levels in regard to both industry standards and expectations, but also to raise the development standards across the industry in future.

    “As the market evolves we want to ensure that all stakeholders strive to achieve excellence, and at the same time recognise those who are delivering on pioneering developments in Africa’s often tough development environments,” Rusin added.He stated that as the continent’s pre-eminent property investment summit, it was fitting that API Summit & Expo should recognise excellence by giving awards to the best of the best.

    According to the jury panellist and owner of W Hospitality Group, Trevor Ward, “The prestige of an API Award will undoubtedly bring an increase in quality in all fields in the property industry in Africa.”He said the panel of judges will bring together a number of distinguished industry leaders from across the continent, each member boasting a variety of expertise and experience.

    The judging panel will critically assess all entries in categories including Best Retail Development, Best Mixed-Use Development, Best Commercial High-rise Development, and Best Architectural Design.

  • REDD+: Countries’ readiness under review

    Nigeria’s national efforts towards Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) received a boost this week as its proponents intensified the initiative, enjoying the support of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF).

    REDD+ represents a country’s efforts to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation, and foster conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks. The concept is based on the premise that deforestation and forest degradation are the second leading cause of global warming, responsible for about 15 per cent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which make the Term Review (MTR) workshop currently holding in Lafia, Nasarawa State capital, stakeholders are attempting to take stock of progress made so far on the project.

    The National Co-ordinator, Nigeria REDD+ Programme, Dr. Moses Ama, explained that the programme aimed at preparing the country to engage and benefit from the potentially emerging performance-based system from REDD+ within the context of the international climate negotiations of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

    “The development objective of the Nigeria FCPF Programme is to support the nation to design a socially and environmentally sound strategy to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation,” he said.

    Ama explained that the MTR will take a holistic step at the initiative by: reviewing progress towards the achievement of the project development objectives and assess the strong and weak points of the project design; reviewing implementation progress for each component, as well as for the administrative aspects of the project; evaluating compliance with fiduciary/safeguards aspects and overall implementation risks; visiting some of the project states and meet with project stakeholders, including government and community representatives, and jointly reviewing with the government the possibility of requesting for additional financing in support of the Forestry sector in the country.

  • Flooding: Lagos moves to avert disaster

    Flooding: Lagos moves to avert disaster

    Flooding, is big headache for Lagos State. Yearly, it devises means of curtailing the menace  in order to save life and properties. Last week, it gathered stakeholders to find solution to the seemingly intracable problem plaguing  communities along the plains of Ogun River, MUYIWA LUCAS reports.

    Sunday Osagie, a young man living in Edo State, had earnestly looked forward to his vacation in Lagos. That was in June 2012. But he didn’t plan for what he later experienced. His holiday was spent indoors, courtesy of the heavy downpour that began on the second day of his arrival. For seven days, the heavens opened up, emptying its bellies, filling the surface of the earth with water. Across the state were endless stretches of rainwater, which constitututed heavy floods.  And in the process, the state’s economy practically shut down. For more than two weeks after the downpour, everywhere in the state remained flooded.

    It has since been established that while nature may take its natural course in flooding, human activities such as dams’ construction may lead to flooding if not properly managed. The perenial Lagos flooding, experts say, could be attributed to many factors such as torrential rainfall, poor drainage system, poor sewage management and disposal, poor urban planning control, deforestation and climate change. All of these factors have combined to make flooding a regular occurrence in most areas of the state, particularly the Ogun River downstream areas, such as Akute, Kara market, Ishasi, Isheri, Ojodu –Abiodun, Ajiliti and Ajegunle Mile 12 axis of the state.

    Determined to find a lasting solution to it, the state last week, organised a two-day summit on the “Negative Impacts of Flooding of Ogun River on Adjoining Towns and Villages in Lagos State”.  The summit, which held in Alausa, Ikeja, aimed at mitigating the effects of the flooding of Ogun River plains and maximising the benefits derivable from the river basin, which include transportation, fishing/farming, power generation and water supply.

    The State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, who spoke through his Commissioner for the Environment, Dr. Babatunde Adejare, said Lagosians along the plains of the Ogun river usually suffer the hardship brought about by the recurrent flooding of the river, owing to the discharge of water from the Oyan Dam, managed by Ogun-Oshun River Basin DevelopmentAuthority (OORBDA).

    “Over the years, people in flood plains, especially Ajegunle (Ikorodu), Owode-Elede, Agiliti, Maidan and Itowolo, have been at the receiving end of the flooding of the plains of Ogun River” he said.

    According to him, the operational activities of dams, being subject to vagaries of nature, sometimes produce unpleasant consequences to the immediate environment, while human activities, resulting in flagrant abuses of the environment are also contributory factors.

    He said: “While the forces of nature can be adapted to, all man-made factors must be adequately dealt with for sustainable environmental renewal,” adding that, to bequeath a sustainable environment to posterity, Lagosians must change their attitude to the environment.

    Ambode disclosed that in response to the phenomenon of Flooding, the state had strengthened Flood Early Warning Signs (FEWS) to deliver reliable, timely and effective flood information to the people at an appropriate response time.

    As part of measures to relieve the pains of people living along Ogun River plains, Governor Ambode, stressed the commitment of his administration to strengthen the existing relationship with the Ogun-Oshun River Basin Development Authority for effective Dam management.

    Ogun-Osun River Basin is located in the Southwestern part of Nigeria, with a land area of 101,802 km2, which is 11 per cent of the total area of the country. The river basin covers Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Oyo and parts of Kwara States. It is drained by two main rivers–Ogun and Oshun, a number of tributaries and smaller rivers, the most important among them are Sasa, Ona, Ibu, Ofiki, Oni, Oyan, Opeki and Yewa.

    In his paper presented at the summit entitled: “Some Evidence of Changing Climate and the implications on Flood Events in Nigeria,”Director-General/Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET), Professor Sani Abubakar Mashi, agreed that in addition to the changes in weather patterns, Nigeria has also been experiencing extreme weather events in line with the global trend. He said the extent and intensity of the 2012 flood in Nigeria was almost the worst in recent history.

    He based his submission on statistics from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), which reported that at least 363 persons were killed; 5,871 people were injured; over 590,000 homes were destroyed and over 2.1 million persons displaced by the flood in 2012.  Mashi further said the Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) carried out by the World Bank revealed that the losses and damages to infrastructure- transport, electricity, water and sanitation, occasioned by the flood amounted to $398 million. The combined value of the damages and production losses stood at $16.9 billion, representing 1.4 per cent of real gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2012.

    The floods affected 35 out of the 36 states, covering 3,870 communities in 256 Local Government Areas. He said Agriculture ranks among the most vulnerable sectors to extreme weather events. The estimated damage and loss inflicted on the agricultural sector in Nigeria by the 2012 flood, according to him, stood at N481.53 billion, representing 40.6  per cent of the total for the productive sectors.

    From the various plenary session and presentations at the summit, it was evident that flooding in Lagos can be attributed to natural and anthropogenic causes. The natural causes include the flat topography, coastal location, low elevation relative to mean sea Level, climate, hydrology, and soil characteristics while anthropogenic causes include haphazard land-use and physical planning.

    Besides, Lagos, through its Lagoon and Creeks, receives all the waters from the Ogun and Osun river basins for onward release to the Atlantic Ocean via the Commodore Channel. This, in combination with its small geographic size, and extensive urbanisation make Lagos incredibly vulnerable to flooding. Also is the effect of climate change, which is said to be responsible for the extreme weather events such as floods that the country now experiences.

    The summit also noted that the hydrological network within the country are few with insufficient annual financial budgetary support to maintain basic hydrological services and their data collection activities, putting lives and infrastructure at risk and limiting the potential for better and informed decision making. It further noted that flood prevention and management efforts can only be achieved if interdisciplinary and inter-governmental approaches are adopted, and affected communities are sensitised of potential and actual risks in order to induce their pre-cautionary actions, and ature conservation measures adopted.

    The Oyan and Ikere Gorge dams, stakeholders agreed, are underutilised assets, especially as regards their hydro-electrical power generation and irrigation potentials, which offer alternative uses of the Ogun and Oshun basins’ waters that should help prevent flooding of downstream communities. They are convinced that the rapid increase in settlement areas, and corresponding decrease in vegetation cover, non-urban land (floodplains) and channel coverage along the Ogun River course in Lagos and Ogun states are the underlying reasons for the flood impacts during heavy rainfall and release of water from Oyan dam in Ogun State.

     

    Communique

    Arising from the summit, a communique was issued and signed by stakeholders in attendance. Part of it was that: Physical development (housing estates, industrial estates etc) on Ogun River flood plains must be discouraged by both governments of Lagos and Ogun; that Lagos State should strengthen collaboration with the NiMET, OORBDA, Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NiHSA) and other relevant MDAs, for early warning systems on Ogun River; all identified stakeholders (Federal Government, Lagos, Ogun, Oyo states and OORBDA) should ensure that both Oyan and Ikere Gorge dams are put to their maximum usage in order to prevent flooding the downstream. Where necessary, new upstream dams, channels, floodwalls, levees, retaining walls and piers, as well as non-structural options such as natural ecosystems, planted degraded wetlands be used as buffers against flood prone areas. All these they said, should be seriously considered as protective measures by the Federal Government; Lagos and Ogun states and that they should liaise with other relevant stakeholders, especially OORBDA to produce flood risk maps, comprehensive flood plain management plans and set up flood management teams for communities at risk. The stakeholders, it was agreed, must adopt Integrated Water Resources Management plan (IWRM), which promotes the co-ordinated development and management of water, land and related resources, in order to maximise the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems.

    It was also agreed that the Federal and Lagos State, OORBDA and tertiary institutions should facilitate easy access to all relevant data in the public domain from past studies relevant for flood management. Re-afforestation of the flood plains, they said, must be seriously considered for urgent implementation by Lagos and Ogun states, while the Federal Government should partner Lagos State for further studies to better understand the tidal effect of Lagos Lagoon and the Atlantic Ocean on the flood plains.

    The OORBDA and the Lagos State Ministry of the Environment, it was recommended, should spearhead the formation of a Technical Committee to work with other states(Ogun, Osun and Oyo) to facilitate regular holding of similar fora. OORBDA, again, should strive to reduce the negative impacts of the Oyan and Ikere Gorge Dams on communities in the Ogun River Basin by followinginternationally acceptable best practices in their reservoir operations.

  • Using facility management to boost GDP

    Using facility management to boost GDP

    Unlike what obtains elsewhere, facility management (FM) is still in its embryonic stage in Nigeria. Stakeholders are worried that except urgent steps are taken, this real estate sub-sector may remain in limbo. They, however, predict that fortune may begin to smile on the local FM industry at the forthcoming World Facility Management Day. MUYIWA LUCAS reports

    It is not really be a major cash-cow for global economies for now; but, compared to its contributions to economies in more developed climes, its contribution remains a sore point for operators in the local industry, giving many a source of concern. This is the unpalatable but true situation of facility management (FM) sub-sector of Nigeria’s real estate industry.

    Facility management, experts say, encompasses multiple disciplines to ensure functionality of the built environment by integrating people, place, process and technology.

    According to the International Facility ManagemenAt Association (IFMA): “FM is the practice of coordinating the physical workplace with the people and work of the organisation. It integrates the principles of business administration, architecture and the behavioral and engineering sciences.”

    While globally, the FM sector contributes at most between five and seven percent to developed economies’ GDP, it is estimated that in Nigeria, it is just a mere 0.01 percent.

    For instance, the British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM) valued the United Kingdom’s (UK) FM industry at approximately E111 billion, and employed almost 10 per of UK’s working population as at 2015.

    Similarly, BUILDINGS.com, a community of facility managers and building owners responsible for the operation of commercial and public buildings, reports that a survey from BOMA: “Where America Goes to Work: The Contribution of Office Building Operations to the Economy, 2014,” showed that in 2013, the 10.4 billion square feet of office space within the areas covered by BOMA International’s local associations created $82.4 billion in operating expenditures to the benefit of local businesses and workers. It further explained that the study, which covered workspaces for around 46.6 million people, demonstrates that for every dollar spent on operations and maintenance, the national economy gained $2.76, resulting in a contribution to the American GDP of over $227 billion in 2013. The study further showed that the operating costs also supported over 1.8 million direct, indirect, and induced jobs, including nearly 32 per cent directly related to building operations. BOMA’s study submitted that additionally, each dollar spent in the FM process helped American workers realise an additional 87 cents in personal earnings. The study covered a wide variety of buildings, including those occupied by tenants, owned by tenants, and government facilities.

    “While the construction of new office buildings is often noted as providing important economic benefits, once this construction is completed and these new buildings are occupied, the economic benefits of their operations continue for the life of the building,”says Stephen S. Fuller of George Mason University, lead author of the report.

    The Managing Director of Alpha Mead Facilities (AMF), Mr. Femi Akintunde, while lamenting the low contribution of FM industry to the nation’s GDP, explained that for the nation’s GDP  to reap from the sub sector, both the government and the private sector should engage in  massive investment in  infrastructure development. This should include but not limited to roads, bridges, telecommunications, airports, waterways and seaports. He added that investment in social infrastructure such  as health, education, judiciary  and  legal system, among others, remain very germane.

    “The number of  activities and jobs generated  in London’s underground; water treatment , production and distribution, road networks, electricity production and distribution has witnessed  a lot of investment. But it is not like that in Nigeria,” he regretted.

    According to Akintunde, the low contribution of FM  to the nation’s GDP can also be traced to the low level of awareness on the part of many stakeholders, a situation he noted has left real estate management on the fringes. For instance, he said, several numbers of commercial and public buildings are without efficient fire equipment and functional lift system.

    He also blamed the government and owners of commercial real estate assets for  low budget for facility management. “Budget for facility management is very low, but in abroad, there is framework. We are not paying enough to allocation to security issues and asset . There is need to put structure in measuring the level of FM development in the country,” he said.

    The AMF boss also identified lack of regulatory and statutory provision that would compel owners of assets to be alive to their responsibility of improving the quality of  their assets, pointing out that many are without efficient fire equipment, clean toilet and functional elevator, among others.

    “There are certain statutory requirements in advanced countries  that  make you  pay  more attention to the quality of your asset, especially if it is seen as a commercial and public building  where people go in  and out. How many times have we had fire incident in high rise buildings which do not have functioning fire equipment to fight the fire? How many offices and government’s ministries have you gone to and feel comfortable to use their toilets?” he asked rhetorically.

    The Chairperson, BIFM,  Nigeria  Region, Mrs  Wale Odufalu, agreed with Akintunde. She explained that there was a need to drive a culture of compliance through self discipline, healthy competition, knowledge sharing and benchmarking to grow the FM industry in Nigeria.

    Urging professionals to adhere to standards and global best practices, Odufalu said that is the only way Nigeria  as a country, and practitioners as a body, can fully benefit from the practice. Property owners, she advised, should also pay attention to maintaining their assets because doing so will guaranty them good and steady returns on their investments.

    And as part of its awareness  cross  Africa, Akintunde said it was the reason his firm held its FM roundtable in Accra, Ghana, as part of the commemoration of 2017  World FM Day with the theme:  “Enabling positive experiences.” He said the forum provided opportunities to highlight how the industry plays an integral role in positive customer, client and employee experience in all sectors.

    The key highlights at the event included media interaction, social media engagement, and award of excellence and recognition for individuals and corporate bodies that has contributed significantly to the development of the profession in countries where the event has held in the past.

    The keynote speaker for the event Archbishop Duncan William, noted a deep quality experience in how to create wealth from building quality real estate assets and sustaining them.

    The forum also featured technical paper presentations from Akintunde; the Managing Director of NTHC Properties Limited, Mr. Jerome Eshun. It offered a viable platform for key stakeholders in the Ghana real estate sector to share ideas, strategise and deliberate on issues affecting the industry and practices in the country.

    FM covers these two main areas: ‘Space and Infrastructure’, that is, the physical built environment with focus on work- space and building- infrastructure (such as planning, design, workplace, construction, lease, occupancy, maintenance, furniture and cleaning) and ‘People and Organisation’ (such as catering, ICT, HR, accounting, marketing, hospitality-that is the people and the organisation and is related to work psychology and occupational physiology.

    The World FM Day is an initiative led by Global FM – a worldwide alliance of member-centered Facilities Management organisations, providing leadership in the advancement of the FM profession through institutions such as the BIFM, IFMA, Facilities Management Association, Australia; and several others around the world.

  • Atan/Agbara alive for Ogun’s 600-metre bridge, road

    The Ogun State government has begun the construction of a six-lane 12-kilometre (KM) road and a 600 metre bridge in Atan/Agbara, Ado-Odo Ota Local Government Area of the state.

    The project is part of measures to  end the hardship being experienced by motorists and other road users due to the bad state of the road.

    The construction work, according to a from the state’s Ministry of Works And Infrastructure, signed by its Head of Media, Adekunle Ewuoso, said the road would be completed before the expiration this administration in 2019.

    The Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Mr. Olamilekan Adegbite, was quoted in the statement as saying: “The contractor has been mandated to start work at two locations. He is going to start the road from Atan and there is a great separator at Lusada and the contractor will start the bridge at the same time Lusada junction. We have given it careful planning, the contractor has been mobilised with substantial amount of money, so I think all things being equal we should complete it before the expiration of the second term,’ he said. Adegbite, the statement said, spoke with reporters in his Abeokuta office, after the demolition of some structure that would give way for the construction of the bridge.

    Reacting to the issue that the road in question is a federal road, Adegbite assured that the state government would continue to lay emphasis and priority on the comfort of the people irrespective of where they are from adding that as far as government is concerned there are no federal road when it comes to the issue of road construction.

    The statement said the Commissioner pointed out that most of roads that are classified federal  have become township roads, so there was no point referring to them as federal anymore, adding that state government was discussing with the Federal Ministry of Works on the need to release these roads to it.

    A resident of the area and the Otun Balogun of Igbesa, Chief Fatai Idowu, thanked the government for embarking on the construction of the road, saying that it was a long-awaited gesture which would bring succour to the hardship faced by motorists and other road users when completed.

  • Nigeria moves for climate change funding

    Unable to still access the Green Climate Fund (GCF), Nigeria has commenced moves to get the cash to battle the effects of climate change.

    The GCF is part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to assist developing countries to counter climate change.

    The Department of Climate Change (DCC) in the Federal Ministry of Environment, is the nation’s Designated National Authority (DNA) to the GCF, and is saddled with driving funding proposals to the GCF to source concessionary funds for implementing sustainable climate adaptation and mitigation projects in the country.

    Intended to be the centrepiece of efforts to raise Climate Finance of $100 billion yearly by 2020, the GCF is supporting projects, programmes, policies and related activities using thematic funding windows.

    With the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the DCC last week held a Stakeholders Forum in Abuja to iron out some notty areas.

    As part of the preparation for the future funding allocation, the DCC, it was gathered, has adopted an all-inclusive process for project identification across the length and breadth of the country to ensure optimal projects which fall into one or more of the three chosen sectors identified and targeted for funding.

    Managing Director of Messrs Kazona Maycroft, the consultants to the project, Mr. Olu Ajayi, wondered why Nigeria, despite being a leading economy on the continent and also one of the most vulnerable nations, has been unable to access the fund.

    Stakeholders said conditions to access the funding is very strigent. This is why the Prof Mobolaji Aluko and Bolade Soremekun, consultants on the project, want the nation’s priorities to be well identified and articulated.

    “We should look at our country’s vulnerable areas, and develop projects related to our vulnerability, with our national circumstances taken into consideration,” they stated.

    However, an erstwhile director of the DCC, Dr Samuel Adejuwon, cautioned that there should be a careful consideration of what has been done before in this regard, in relation to what is to be done.

    “Let us make it somewhat open-ended, such that other consultants can come in to implement, or take to a different level,” he said.

    The Forum comprised stakeholders from various interest groups who explored topics such as coastal resilience, renewable energy and energy efficiency, environmental, social and gender issues, legal and regulatory issues, as well as financial issues/barriers.

    The Africa Finance Corporation and African Development Bank are accredited entities to the GCF.