PROPERTY ARTICLES

THE Federal Government is to partner with the organised private sector (OPS) and the surveying profession by providing an enabling environment for both surveyors and cartographers, before the amended Survey Co-ordination Act of 1992 could be implemented under the Land Use Reform system, Minister of Works, Housing and Urban Development, Alhaji Hassan Mohammed Lawan has disclosed.

Lawan spoke in Damaturu, while presenting his keynote address to participants at the National Survey Co-ordination and Advisory Board on Survey Training Conference at the Federal Secretariat complex.

The partnership between government and the private sector, he said, would involve the surveyors reviewing, harmonising and co-ordinating their operations towards implementation of the amended Surveyor Co-ordination Act of 1992.

He noted that the road map to efficient and effective land use and management would curtail wastages as a result of duplications.

Surveying and the Geo-informatics, according to the minister, "would also ensure compliance with all the specifications; improve national security and improve the practice of surveying in the country.

He therefore called on all stakeholders, particularly those in the OPS to partner with the Federal Government in improving the profession of surveying, which, he said, has become critical in the country's development process.

Meanwhile, he said that government in recognising the contributions of the surveying profession has upgraded the office of the Surveyor-General to a full-fledged and autonomous Agency under the supervision of the Ministry of Works, Housing and Urban Development.

The exercise, he explained, was to boost the performance of surveyors, while their capacity would be built and upgraded in the Federal Civil Service.

He maintained that the availability and access to land, as well as topographic information are imperative for national food security, including the infrastructural facilities for electricity and water supplies, roads and telecommunication.