Mr. Olasijibomi Ojuola is the Chairman, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), Nigeria Group and Managing Director, Built Reliance Company Limited. He spoke to VICTOR GBONEGUN on ways to achieve affordable housing and encourage professionals to adopt new technologies in the built industry.

Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) was established to effect positive change in the built environment, enforce the highest professional qualifications and standards in the development, as well as management of land, real estate, construction and infrastructure. How much of these mandates have been achieved by the Nigeria Group?
THE Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Nigeria Group established in 1963 is a subset of the RICS in the United Kingdom, which is the highest regulatory body in the built and natural environment. I stand bold to say that these mandates have been achieved in areas where our members have been opportune to offer services. In many cases, we have surpassed these goals, considering that these mandates evolve periodically in a bid to meet present-day realities such as sustainability, inclusion and diversity.

Today, we see an increased demand for our members by government agencies, and private and multinational organisations owing to how we render our services differently. As professionals who are RICS members, we are trained to be honest, act with integrity, comply with all professional obligations, maintain competence at all times, provide good quality and diligent service, treat others with respect, while encouraging diversity and inclusion.

Furthermore, we are trained to always act in the public interest and take responsibility for our actions. Clients repose a lot of confidence in our members because aside from our competencies, capability, and capacity, we always uphold an ethical standard of the profession.

The housing sector is currently facing a huge impact of rising inflation, which has affected the cost of building materials, professional charges and delivery of housing. What do you think is the way forward to achieve affordable housing?
The word affordable housing to many is referred to houses that are cheap. At any point in time that I have been opportune to speak on this subject, I begin by stating that no house is cheap. Affordability is subjective as what you term affordable may not be affordable, hence, we must lay emphasis on developing housing schemes for every stratum of our population willing to own or live in houses.

In closing the gap, there is a need to look into our beliefs as a people, as well as the policies of the government. Many are of the opinion that the more expensive a building material the better the quality. Some also believe that a house is a building once it is made of brick and mortar. If we are to narrow it down, some also believe that the brick and mortar must be made of cement.

There is a need to change all of these perspectives in a bid to embrace locally sourced materials in developing housing schemes. We need to embrace locally sourced materials in developing housing schemes. We have had several of our members, who have not only carried out research as to reducing the cost of constructing buildings when employing locally sourced materials, rather they have implemented housing schemes that still stand the test of time.

In reducing the cost of buildings new trends have continued to evolve such as employing the use of container cabins, when you go around now you see lots of container buildings serving purpose beautifully, we now have a school in Lagos built of container cabins. The cost of building is a combination of several costs, which may be direct, indirect, variable or fixed costs which can be associated with building materials, manpower, machines, management, and government policies.

Government policies are required to play a major role in terms of availability of funds, for instance, access to the mortgage, standardisation of building materials (ensuring that our locally sourced materials meet the acceptable standard), implementation of housing schemes (regulate how these housing schemes are implemented so as to guide against privileged exclusivity to those owing a house) among others, such as improving the rate of development within the rural settlements.

RICS Nigeria Group has been clamouring for stakeholders in the built-up sector to adopt green designs that will ensure sustainability and resilience in construction and property asset management. Why are these calls necessary?
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in its recent report stated that our sector accounted for 38 per cent of total global energy-related Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions, which occur from the production to the incorporation of building materials and finally the use. In order to reach net zero, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has estimated that direct building CO2 emissions need to fall by 50 per cent by 2030.

This equates to around six per cent per year. You will agree with me that our generation has created some disorder in the environment, which requires that we all join hands to reduce to the minimum or eliminate, if possible, its effect on the next generation. This is a responsibility that we cannot afford to fail at. A few years back when issues of climate change were always talked about, a lot of people felt it was a joke and that it was an issue that affected just a section of the world.

Today, we all are witnesses to the effect of climate change. We have continued to see countries and global leaders coming together to proffer ways to mitigate against this possible crisis we all face. To this end, as professionals and major stakeholders, it is for us to continue to come about environmentally friendly infrastructure, which is monetarily pleasing, economically receptive and institutionally sustainable while considering social factors.

There have been concerns about overlap among some professionals in the built environment on the valuation of plants and machinery. What are your perspectives about this?
I don’t think the issue of rivalry should come into play. As professionals, we are trained to carry out specific roles, which must be respected and that is where ethics come into play; you are expected to perform the role for which you have been trained. Today, for us as professionals, there is a need to collaborate. That is why the RICS is very important in promoting collaboration within the built environment.

Globally, Prop-Tech is revamping the way people interact with property, whether it is for construction purposes, property management, home services, buying, selling or renting. Why is the revolution slow in the country?
While I don’t agree that the prop-tech revolution is slow in the country, I will state that we are not yet at that level that a lot of us wished we should be. A lot is going on in the Nigeria Prop-tech space, ranging from how people are able to access data as regards construction cost to the availability of properties, to viewing of properties from any part of the world. We continue to see new trends in the property space and we can only be encouraged to do more as professionals within the built environment. 

What are you doing to reposition members towards understanding real estate applications and tools?
We continue to provide the right environment for our members through training, seminars, project tour and collaboration with allied professionals, among others.

In times past, there was a clamour to bring all the surveyors – quantity surveyors, estate surveyors and land surveyors under one umbrella. Do you plan to pursue that initiative?
Well, to a large extent talks are ongoing as to bringing all three surveying professions under one umbrella and I believe some progress has been made. We must acknowledge the difficulty of each surveying professional giving up her identity for the purpose of coming under one umbrella body.

A lot of time and sacrifice are required from all parties. There is a need for the concerned professionals to understand that the pros far outweigh the cons, it should rather be more of WE than I. A good example is our neighbour Ghana, where all surveying bodies come under one umbrella and each surveying profession stands as a faculty under the umbrella body, which has led to a unified recognition of the Ghanaian surveying profession.

What has been the agenda to improve the group? 
With a few months to the end of this tenure, in the last one and a half years, we have built, engaged and created avenues for young surveyors, to spur them to become better professionals, while attaining RICS status. We have undertaken reforms within, as it is our belief that in sustaining the group for the future, there is a need for reforms in terms of providing a guiding document for officers and members of the group.

Furthermore, we have closed the gap and encouraged more participation in our programmes by employing the use of technology hence we look forward to more engaging time with members across the country.

At all times as the RICS Nigeria group, we do not in any way view ourselves as a rival group to any of the surveying bodies that exist within Nigeria, hence, we continue to seek collaboration with all of our surveying sister bodies in Nigeria. Beautifully, the leadership of most of these bodies are members of the RICS Nigeria group.

For the records, as chartered surveyors, we meet and maintain the most rigorous practice standard and professional conduct; hence we are highly prestigious and recognised globally in the business of surveying, real estate and construction.

Conclusively, it is our belief that with unity of purpose, much has been and can be achieved, hence we will continue to remain faithful to the ideals of our forbearers as we are at this time fortunate to be the keepers of the legacies and ideals of the RICS.

Source:Guardian