Abuja, July 25 (Viewpoint Housing News) – Surv. David Kayode Oluwamotemi, fnis, the President of the Nigerian Institution of Surveyors (NIS), at the 17th Africa International Housing Show (AIHS ) in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, revealed the importance of housing statistics is to the attainment of the provision of affordable housing for African families.
He said failure to keep up with statistics will prove the goal of attaining affordable housing provision unrealistic.
He attributed why provision of affordable housing may be unobtainable to some factors that include high cost of urban land, lack of affordable housing finance, rising construction costs, weak tenure security, prevalence of slums and lack of statistics.
Surv. Kayode who was represented by Surv. Aro-Lambo Yusuf Agboola, emphasized on the accuracy of data collation and added that the NIS recognises the provision of timely, correct information on housing and population must be prioritized to ensure the provision of affordable and efficient housing.
He gave assurances that members of the NIS are registered professionals willing to provide the industrial documents where all housing development are built open.
Lately, there was an upturn in housing collapse across the country and he keenly emphasized on how taking statistics of these numbers can have a positive effect on ways to curb what one can describe as a menace.
“One of the challenges facing the construction industry is the menace of building collapse, he said.
“Nigeria has not got an enviable statistics of this occurrence in the past few years, beyond the provisions of the document that depict the size and shape of households where housing is provided, the ubiquity surveying makes partners in progress at every development stage of such.
He said Surveyors are trained to monitor the deformation of old and giant structures and the misalignment of new ones during construction, as this and other factors are responsible for building collapse, besides the use of sub standard building materials. “Evidence based spatial data is what surveyors are known to provide to avoid building collapse”, he emphasized.
