NIESV urges investors to curb quackery in housing sector

Mr. Rowland Abonta, the National President of Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), at the weekend, reiterated that efforts were in high gear to curtail quackery in the housing and construction profession, urging potential investors to always insist on professionals.

NIESV is the highest decision making body for all practising estate surveyors and valuers across the country.

Abonta, who said this at the institution’s 2018 /2019 council year meeting, held in Abuja, also noted that the best approach to solving the housing gap in the country was for government to regulate housing, adding “government should have minimal participation in housing, and there should be consistency in policy and programme of housing in Nigeria.”

He said the move to tackle the issue of quackery became necessary because quacks were misrepresenting the institution by doing what they were not trained to do.

“The issue of quackery is not peculiar to our profession but for our profession we take it seriously because these are people who misrepresent us; who do the work that they are not supposed to do. When you talk about the practice of agency, which is dominant in the housing sector, those you call quacks include even other professionals who decide to do what they were not trained to do. And so we are making every effort to make sure that we curtail their activities. Whether it will be possible to eradicate quackery in Nigeria, I am not sure that can be achieved but we want to reduce it to the barest minimum through advocacy, letting people know who to go to when they need services in housing, and also letting people know the role of our profession in the housing sector.”

He added that already the institution had established the Association of Registered Estate Agents of Nigeria, which aims to retrain those who studied estate Survey and Value but are not truly qualified as professionals. He stressed that such trainings provide requisite skills to enable them practise in the right way.

Abonta said the institution was also opening up to other professionals who are interested in the field through the Association of Estate Agencies of Nigeria to have them trained, regulated and properly controlled, to reduce the menace that bring bad name to the institution.

The NIESV boss noted that the state of housing in the country was still lacking in different ways in terms of adequacy, stressing that the nation needs to do a lot more in order to fill the housing gap for its teaming population.

Credit: Independent