Babatunde Fashola, Nigeria’s Minister of Works and Housing has backed advocacy by the International Facility Management Association (IFMA) Nigeria Chapter to preserve public facilities and infrastructure.
Fashola, who spoke at IFMA’s second edition of Facility Management Advocacy day held on Thursday in Lagos, stressed that public facilities and infrastructure development are one of the bases of assessing the achievements of governance and also an indicator of the quality of governance, saying infrastructure is the basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of this society.
Represented by the director, Federal Public Asset Management, Arch Tina Onokwai, the minister said that the theme of the second edition of the advocacy day is is very important to sustainable public facilities and infrastructure management.
The event was themed ‘Effective and sustainable Management of Public Facilities and Infrastructure – evaluating the reality to explore the possibilities’.
According to Fashola, sustainable cities and communities are the 11th of the 17th Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It identifies sustainable infrastructure and facility management as a pertinent index that instigates response to sustainability as a universal code to preserving what you have for tomorrow’s generation, how to preserve what you have for tomorrow’s generation, simply through continuous maintenance of existing public facilities and infrastructure.
“It is worthy to note that the management of public facilities and infrastructure, enhances performance, durability, and sustainability across the entire infrastructure from roads, buildings office, accommodation, industrial buildings, hospitals among others.
“Sustainable maintenance creates improved efficiency, optimizes utility and longevity of infrastructure. Sustained and public maintenance or facilities does not only create a friendly environment, which is visually appealing but generates constant jobs and wealth for a significant part of the population, particularly the youth, thereby growing the economy.”
He also noted maintenance is a sector of an economy that significantly impacts the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) index of a nation.
He said that the federal government has created a new department of Federal Public Assets Maintenance in the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing to pursue the ideas of national public building maintenance policy, which in the long run will be embraced and extended to the state and local governments.
He added that the federal government is committed to addressing the infrastructure gap in all sectors of the Nigerian economy through the development of the National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan (NIMP), saying that the maintenance of existing public facilities and infrastructure is also key to the bridging of infrastructure gap, and there are numerous opportunities in infrastructure jobs.
Speaking earlier, President of IFMA (Nigeria Chapter), Mr. Segun Adebayo stated that the thought behind the initiative of Advocacy Day by the Association is to create a platform for critical stakeholders and operators in the built environment to have strategic conversations and discussions on matters of utmost importance to the collective interest and concerns as a professional body, a progressive State and as a Nation with huge potentials for growth with the capacity to progressing Nation,
“This is our way of changing the narratives and the trajectory of the industry and the built environment,” he added.
Adebayo further noted “Our maiden edition held on December 13, 2019, where we spoke about Sustainable Facility Management as a panacea for nation-building has provided us with positive feedbacks which have also propelled us into doing more towards a better operating environment.
“The consistent implementation of the takeaway from the maiden edition has equally translated to the theme of today’s event with sustainability as a common word in both themes.
He added that “This event will equally afford us the possibilities of evaluating the reality around the state of public facilities and infrastructure, the huge and continuous investment of the federal government in public facilities and infrastructure, the efforts of the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing in providing impactful direction in the management of federal facilities and infrastructure.”
Meanwhile, during the event, the Honourable Minister, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, was given an award of Excellence because of his contributions to Facility Management while serving as the Governor of Lagos and for his noble strides in the ministry since he became the Minister of Works and Housing.
Speakers at the event were Mrs. Amin Sarah Dottie, Technical Manager, Julius Berger; Arc. Dhikrullah Har-Yusuph, the Managing Director, Lagos State Development and Property Corporation (LSDPC); Ms. Adenike Adekanbi, General Manager, Lagos State Infrastructure Assets Management Agency.
Others are Mr. Yassin Emad, General Manager Operations Provast Limited; Eneni Halim, Head, Special Projects, Afriland Properties PLC; Dr Charles Oniha, Head, Clinical Services, Federal Medical Centre, Ebute-Metta among others.
