Date: 2017-04-13

Nigeria Institute of Quantity Surveyors, Kwara state branch, yesterday advised government at all levels to always engage professional quantity surveyors in determining the right cost of projects before embarking on such to avert cases of abandoned projects.

They also called for an urgent need to establish local industries that would process raw materials for constructions "so as to put an end to importation of construction materials in Nigeria."

State chairman of the Institute, Samuel O. Egeruan, who spoke at a two-day workshop organised in Ilorin by the institute, said "we must underscore unequivocally that Quantity Surveyors are the only professional' trained and licensed to act as cost consultants and that only Quantity Surveyors should be engaged as such."

The workshop was themed "Overcoming the Challenges of Capital Projects Delivery in a Recessive Construction Market."

The institutes chairman lamented that the continued importation of foreign construction materials was killing the construction sector and hampering development of local industries.

"Given Nigeria s enormous infrastructure and housing gaps, the construction industry could easily start to contribute 12 % to GDP if the right policies are adopted and faithfully implemented in the housing and infrastructure sectors .The potentials for such level of growth to soak up the armies of employment people is very alluring," he said.

Egeruan praised the state government and the University of Ilorin for encouraging the use of local contents and patronage of its members in construction projects.

Declaring the workshop open, the Commissioner for Housing and Urban Development, Alhaji Muiden Alalade, said: "The construction industry is one of the first to suffer when an economy goes into recession .It is therefore of vital importance that we develop our construction industry to grow our economy as well as enhance the welfare of the people in tangible ways."