To guarantee efficient management of resources in the built industry especially towards achieving its vision of building affordable houses for Nigerians, Shelter Afrique has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Nigeria Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS).
The agreement which will allow for capacity building of members of NIQS in resource management among others, is expected to equip the Nigerian professionals to be able to fill in lacunas that have hitherto been missing in the building sector mostly on utilization of intervention funds for projects.
Recall that Shelter Afrique recently announced its intention to launch about $2.5billion bonds with the Central Bank of Nigeria as part of its intervention efforts at bridging the over 70 million housing deficit problem facing the country.
According to Mohammed Abba Tor, President of the NIQS the collaborative partnership will guarantee accountability, and provide avenues for researches as both partners share similar vision. “we are looking for best practices of doing things because there are still areas of improvements, we have to leverage on the various interventions of Shelter Afrique in some areas and use those modules to train our people, to provide value for money, we have a long way to go including sensitization for the public to appreciate what we are doing.
Also speaking on the MoU, Chief Excecutive Officer and Managing Director of Shelter Afrique, Andrew Chimphona said it is about not compromising regulations of building, to avoid architectural defects that can lead to the collapse of buildings, that is why we at Shelter Afrique when we are investing money on any project we want to make sure that all the processes that are required to be followed are observed to the later to ensure that we ensure that the structural integrity of the building is really acceptable and passes the right regulatory stages”
While commiserating with families of victims he described the tragic Lagos building collapse as unfortunate, but an incident that ought to teach people a lot of lessons.
He said Shelter Afrique ,sees Nigeria as a very strategic market in Africa, hence the need to help the country resolve its housing deficit. According to him, the MoU is preparatory to the proposed launch of the N2.5billion bond, and since the money is going to projects, the NIQS will be a reliable partner.
“On all projects that we look at, we want to make sure that whoever is giving us estimate are those that been registered by Real Estate Development Association of Nigeria (REDAN) and of course probably certified by NIQS, we will also be providing value support and make our investment more credible as well as create employment not only for members of NIQS but also for Nigerians,” he explained.
