President of the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS), Mrs. Mercy Iyortyer, has urged Nigerian quantity surveyors to embrace the global change in the construction industry.
The President addressed the Nigerian Quantity Surveyors at the 2016 annual general meeting and workshop of the NIQS with the theme, “Building Information Modelling (BIM): The Concept, Application and Benefits in Project Development held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
“We live in a world that is constantly changing and we must be poised to embrace this change. New trends, emerging competencies and skills are constantly reshaping our world,” said Mrs. Mercy Iyortyer. “Emerging with them are new roles, expectations, opportunities and responsibilities,” she added.
The NIQS President described BIM as one of the emerging competencies in the construction industry, saying that the workshop is to prepare quantity surveyors and other professionals to respond to a change that has come to stay in the world.
According to President Iyortyer, reports in the industry have shown that demand for construction is high while the money to fund the demand is going down because of the fall in oil prices. This should bring about smart ways of working using systems that will make us achieve projects at a lower cost or reduced duration without reducing or affecting quality or value.
The Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors was founded in 1969 by a group of Nigerians who trained, qualified and practiced in the United Kingdom but who upon returning to Nigeria sensed the urgent need to develop the profession of Quantity Surveying in Nigeria by establishing a parallel body to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors of United Kingdom.
Currently the Profession of Quantity Surveying is practiced in Nigeria along the same pattern as in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries.
