Asset Management experts have canvassed the need for Nigerian organisations to imbibe a culture of effective management and maintenance in their operations.
Speaking at this year’s Infrastructure Asset Summit Africa, which was held in Lagos, Mr. Femi Akintunde, Managing Director, AlphaMead Facilities and Management Services Limited (AM Facilities), said: “We need to reshape Nigeria’s maintenance culture by promoting good facilities management in the country. The maintenance culture in Nigeria today is very poor and this is caused by a lack of transparency, accountability and inadequate provision of resources, which leads to poorly maintained public infrastructure.”
“But, interestingly, Nigeria is at a point where the awareness of the need for quality is rising; people want to see improvement in terms of service delivery. We as facility managers need to be able to provide strategic and effective facility management services in Nigeria in order to be able to evaluate the impact of value given in comparison with the global best practice,” he added.
The two-day event, an initiative of Codub Consulting Ltd, supported by UK Trade and Investment (UKTI), with AMFacilities as strategic partners, was tagged “Reduce Cost, Improve Safety and Increase Profitability through Effective Asset Management and Maintenance.” It sought to provide a forum for over 150 decision makers and senior professionals from different parts of the world to discuss the various aspects of Asset Management and Maintenance, with a view to offering insights on Maintenance Planning, driving down Operating Expenses (OPEX) and increasing profitability through the adoption of best practices in Asset Management.
According to the organiser of the event, Mr. Chidi Umeano, Principal Consultant, Codub Consulting Ltd, “Job creation and wealth management is an output of good Asset Management and ‘waste’ is a word I hate, hence the theme of the workshop. People should be guided in developing an Asset Management policy, so that it becomes the norm and then government institutions would be able to set standards for future practice.”
The event was attended by government officials, senior managers, senior financial directors and senior proffessionals from different parts of Nigeria.
This year’s asset summit took place for the first time in African soil, following the successes of the last two summits in London in 2012 and 2013.
