YSF laments shortage of surveyors in Nigeria

From: Femi Oyelola, Kaduna

The Young Surveyors Network of Nigeria, Kaduna state branch has expressed dismay over the shortage of surveyors in Nigeria.
The guest speaker, Surv. Winston Ayeni, stated this at a career guidance and counselling session carried out by the Network, at the Sacred Hearts Secondary school in Kaduna, yesterday.
Surv. Ayeni who is a member of the Board of Directors, of the International Federation of Surveyors said that, Out of the 36 states in Nigeria, not one has enough, even without counting the Federal Agencies, which means, that when people say there’s no employment, it is because the country lacks surveyors.
He added that, what the surveying communities are trying to do, is to encourage the young ones and let them know that there’s an opportunity for surveying even in government.
“The government should not be taking decisions like, I’m from Gonin-Gora so the University should be there without thinking if Gonin-Gora has infrastructures to support the University. That is how decisions are made, based on actionable spatial information and who will give them this information? It is surveyors so you see, we need more surveyors in the country.”
In his remark, the Patron of the YSN, Surv. Musa Ephraim said the Young Surveyors Network is creating awareness in schools for students to be informed about surveys and aspire to become one.
“Considering the number of surveyors we have in the country today, indeed, there’s a shortage. We speak a lot about the building industry where you hear of buildings collapsing all because a proper survey was not done before the building. There’s what we call terrain and if it’s not properly surveyed, you hear of collapse.”
“There’s also the construction of roads, bridges, drainage which get damaged due to erosion and so many other things and all these aspects, surveyors are needed in those ministries, but considering the number of available surveyors, there’s not enough to cater for all the ministries or States, which is why we are here today on a mission to catch them young so that those who are yet to decide on a course can pick survey as their career choice.”