Group to sponsor bill on facility management

 

The International Facility Management Association, Nigeria chapter, has said it is planning to present a bill to the National Assembly for the enactment of legislation on facility management.

        The Director, Board of Directions, IFMA, Mr. Collins Osayamwen, who stated this in a statement made available to our correspondent in Abuja on Sunday, said plans were underway to approach the Presidency for the possibility of presenting the bill as an Executive bill since the procurement processes in most organization were weak.

        The proposed law, he said, was targeted at addressing the lack of regular turn around maintenance of public facilities in the country.

        He said, “We need to conduct a proper research, do our homework very well, which is currently ongoing, and ensure that we get the right processes in place and present it to the Executive to ensure that it present it to the National Assembly as an Executive bill.

        “We are calling on the government for us to see how we can see this bill passed so that we can have it as profession and so that we can have a voice. The only way we can have a voice is to have the legislation.”

        Osayamwen, however, said that since there appeared to be vague awareness of the essence of facility management in the country IFMA would pick the Abuja National Stadium as a pilot project for it to demonstrate the capacity and the ability of its members to give public facilities proper maintenance.

        He said, “Now, to expose the concept of this profession will cost, money and what we are asking for is an opportunity to continue to showcase the proposition of facility management. if we can get a public facility to demonstrate what facility management can do for a country, it will go a long to achieving what we have been looking forward to.

        “For instance, the challenge we have given ourselves is for the authorities to give us the National Stadium and see what we can turn it to.”

        Asked how the association would turn around the stadium, Osayamwen said it could be through a Public Private Partnership or otherwise, stressing that the group was still planning the model after a house in Australia.

        He noted that the duty of facility managers was to ensure that they manage the physical infrastructure in the built environment in order to achieve the purpose of designing them.

        Osayemwen said, facility managers reduced costs as most organizations procurement processes were deficient.

        “When we are able to implement facility management, organizations will be able to save billions of dollars because we are losing a lot from not managing our facilities very well. With time, the facilities will fail, while we lose a lot of money in the process,” he said.

        Osayemwen stated that IFMA would empower facility managers to perform their roles in any part of the world.

Resort set to disburse N320m to NHF contributors

RESORT Savings and Loans Plc has said the coast is now clear for contributors to the National Housing Fund who applied for mortgage facilities through it to get loans.

        The Managing Director, RSL, Mr. Abimbola Olayinka, said the company had received the go ahead from the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria to disburse the loans to its various customers who had applied for such facilities, provided applicants met the terms and conditions to draw on the loans

        The NHF scheme was established by the National Housing Fund Act 1992 to facilitate the continuous flow of low cost fund for long term investment in housing for the benefits of all Nigerians.

        The mortgage bank acknowledged the fact that the ability to draw from the NHF was one of its milestone achievement it had been able to boost the confidence of not only its customers, but of all Nigerians who were contributors to the scheme.

        According to him, it is has further given it an edge to leverage on creating affordable mortgage to the low and middle income earners, adding that RSL had got close to N1.5bn from the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria for disbursement to the NHF  contributors, and was processing over N6bn for the same purpose.

         “Our vision is to ensure that every Nigerian has an affordable decent accommodation,” Olayinka said.