NIESV seeks Lagos state govt. collaboration on policies

Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), Lagos State branch has appealed to new government in Lagos State to extend its hands of fellowship to the institution in the area of formulating, implementing and executing some policies in strategic areas in real estate sector so as to effectively and efficiently carry out to achieve its objectives.

Such areas include rating and taxation, Land Use Charge, facility management, appeal tribunal and the International Public Sector Accounting Standard (IPSAS).

The appeal was made by the outgoing Chairman of the Institution, ESV Stephen Jagun, while speaking with journalists shortly before the Branch’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) where new executives were elected to superintend the affairs of the Institution for the next two years.

Jagun noted that there are several areas where Estate Surveyors and Valuers can be used to enable the state actualise its dream in the area of revenue generation, wealth and job creation, as well as make life comfortable for the people of the state in housing sector as Lagos State is a state of excellence, which drives the economy of the country.

“We are happy about the Urban Regeneration Programme by the state government, the blueprint is good, we believe very shortly, they will set up the machinery and agencies to start running them. One of the key professionals needed to help them actualise this dream is the estate surveyors and valuers. In some countries, we are referred to as land economist, so they must get back to us to enable them to have best uses of the land resources.

“The second one is the valuation of government assets. From time to time, they need to have sense of value of what they own, if not that we rebased our economy last year, they will still be looking at us all over the world to be either in second or third position, but by tapping into some areas that have been over-looked, we realised that we are higher and better than where we thought we are, so in terms of assets and infrastructure, we have gone far above others.

And again, the International Public Sector Accounting Standard (IPSAS), the standard which Lagos State want to adopt, we are happy about that. In that wise, they need to engage estate surveyors and valuers to help them because we understand that between now and next year, they will start to implement it fully, so they should not start on wrong footage, they should put the right professionals in the right place; estate surveyors and valuers are the only one permitted by law to carry out valuation exercise,” he stressed.

The outgoing chairman commended Lagos State Government for deeming it fit to establish facility management agency, which is doing a good job, but noted that it can do it better if they engage estate surveyors and valuers to manage the agency.

Speaking further, Jagun said for rating and taxation, one of the arguments of those opposing to taxation in the state is that the basis of their taxation, particularly, landed assets, are ambiguous and vague, affirming that only people that can calculate the real value of landed property are estate surveyors and valuers.

According to him, “I can’t remember when last any local government in Lagos State carried out rating valuation, it was about 20 years or more, which is supposed to be reviewed every five years where we copy it from, and is working for them. The new government in place should look into this; we need to use right professionals for the rating and taxation.

“Last year we talked about the need to follow due process in Land Use Charge, up till now, we are not aware that they have done that, the formula they are using is not known anywhere in the world. It is not about giving rebate on it, when we say something is faulty, it is faulty; how do they arrive at value before they charge their own percentage, the method they are using is not known anywhere globally.”

Jagun also disclosed that under Lagos State valuation law established in 1980, there are five appeal tribunals with estate surveyors and valuers, lawyers and tenant representatives on board, noting that this should be revived so that they can be functional.