Surveyors Advocate Storey Building Monitoring In Urban Areas, Others

The Nigerian Institution of Surveyors has called for close monitoring of all storey buildings in urban areas to avert the frequent building collapse in the country.

The institution also called on the Federal and State Governments to enact laws compelling monitoring of structures such as houses, bridges and roads at all stages of construction to avert shoddy jobs and collapses, leading to loss of lives and resources.

The President of the Nigerian Institution of Surveyors, Kayode Oluwamotemi, made the call during the commemoration of the Global Surveyors Day recently in Abuja.

According to a report by the Building Collapse Prevention Guild, Abuja, Rivers and Lagos State had recorded storey buildings collapsed in 2023, adding that this has become a recurring decimal with 271 structural failures across the country as well as caused the death of more than 531 persons in the last 10 years.

Oluwamotemi, while speaking with journalists, expressed concern over the rising cases of building collapse across the country, insisting that there must be regulations that would put owners of structures in check through strict monitoring by certified surveyors to avert the crisis.

The President of the Nigerian Institution of Surveyors,  said, “To avoid building collapse, all storey buildings in urban areas of the country should be monitored by a surveyor every two years.

“There should be a law, which says there should be a yearly monitoring record that will help to identify a building posture. This is because a potential building collapse cannot be identified by just looking at it. It has to be with the use of an instrument.

“There is no law currently to back this but we have been discussing with the Senate to consider it. Some progress has been made but we would have to start again when the new assembly comes in.”

Oluwamotemi encouraged its members to embrace global trends as well as for them to maintain a good relationship with the public in the discharge of their duties.

In his words: “We have told members of the public about the profession. Now, we need to be very careful. Let’s make sure we have adequate instruments; we are disciplined and organised. Surveying is about discipline and we need to show that to the public when they need our services.”