PROPERTY ARTICLES

QUANTITY surveyors have called on financial institutions and lending agencies to reel out workable and feasible programme towards the development of the nation’s dilapidating infrastructure, which they said, was pivotal to an all-round development of the Nigerian state.

The professionals under the aegis of Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS), Lagos chapter, spoke in Lagos last week ahead of its forthcoming Distinguished Lecture Series with the theme "Banking Sector Reforms, Aftermaths and Effects on Infrastructure Financing in Nigeria (DLS)," holding this week at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA).

Billed to deliver the lecture is Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. But the NIQS, last week took an overview of the state of infrastructure in the country and lamented paucity of funds, and its attendant neglect of improving on the nation’s infrastructure.

Chairman of the chapter, Mr. Jide Oke, noting that professionals within the sector welcomed the reform in banking institutions, said they still believed there was a need for the CBN to give the construction industry a roadmap for financing the sector, particularly infrastructure.

Oke said that provision of adequate infrastructure would immensely contribute to national development. "As you may well know, infrastructure is the nexus that the whole essence of the development in this country resolves. And this includes such amenities as power, roads, bridges, dams, airports, rail-lines, hospitals, housing, all which make life better and contribute to national development.

"In Nigeria toady, inadequacy or lack of these facilities have been the bane of our development. To bring about the development of these infrastructures, there is no doubt that financing from banks and other lending agencies would be needed," he said.

Noting that the present global meltdown and the on-going reform in the banking industry had generally affected all businesses, including real estate financing, the state NIQS chief noted however, that the reform was needed in order to put in place virile financial institutions that can compete on the global scene of project funding.

According to him, reforms in the banking sector had long been expected, saying no matter the effects now, it was certain that the aim of the process would lead to an ultimate goal that would stand the test of time.

Publicity Secretary of the institute, Mr. Olayemi Shonubi, said that though the consolidation exercise promoted by the erstwhile CBN Governor, Prof. Charles Soludo, was commendable, the menace of corruption and fraud that pervaded the system did not allow the initiative to deliver its intended goal.