Fashola Tasks Quantity Surveyors Board on Cost Data Bank

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, has urged the reconstituted Quantity Surveyors Registration Board of Nigeria (QSRBN) to develop a cost data bank to support the formation of cost estimates that would serve as a reference material for stakeholders in the construction industry.

In his remarks before the brief ceremony at the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja, Fashola urged the professionals to develop a range of costs for the different ecological zones of the country as well as evolve means of making the practice of quantity surveying simple enough and responsive to the man on the street.

Emphasising the importance of quantity surveyors in the economic growth of the country, Fashola declared: “These are people whose core professional mandate is really ensuring that clients get value for money on all building construction projects.”
He challenged the members of the board “to develop a very ope
n and possibly nationwide cost data bank that will be used in different parts of the country,” adding “So that at least in water lodged environment, for example we can know what is the minimum cost of materials required to complete a project as against what would be required on normal land.”

Congratulating the Chairman and members of the reconstituted Board, Fashola who noted with pleasure the broad mix of experience and value that were brought to the Board, Fashola said: “This Board has, among many other responsibilities, the responsibility for registering persons who are fit and qualified to serve and practice as quantity surveyors and also to the responsibility to regulate the standard and the knowledge and the general practice of the profession in our country.”

“These are the people whose core professional mandate is cost economics, ensuring that clients get value for the money spent on projects,” he said, adding that the current crop of professional quantity surveyors have a duty to bridge the gap between town and gown to ensure that young Nigerians studying to become professionals are put on the right trajectory.
In his remarks, President of the of the Board, Mallam Murtala Aliyu, thanked the minister and the federal government for the opportunity and privilege given the members to serve on the board adding that the members of the profession were in a fit position to contribute to the economic growth of the country.

He expressed satisfaction that the board has been captured in this year’s budget and pledged that with the collaboration of the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, the Board would carry out its job effectively.

Aliyu said the QSRBN was already working hand in hand with the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS) on a cost data base that will be used across the country.