The Group Managing Director of Alpha Mead, Femi Akintunde, has called on the federal government to provide the environment that enables businesses to thrive and improve the non-oil sector performance.
Akintunde’s call was contained in his keynote address at the 2022 International Facility Management Association (IFMA) Nigeria Advocacy Day in Lagos with the theme, ‘The Economy of Facility Management: Harnessing the Value and Impact in Nigeria’.
He noted that, though FG had been providing the environment for the profitability of businesses and attracting foreign direct investment, pertinent issues such as multiple taxations, hyper-inflation and lack of basic infrastructure are grossly limiting the growth of this profitability.
“Our lack of infrastructure means that businesses are saddled with the task of providing everything by themselves. From water to electricity and now security, businesses must do everything by themselves, which is seriously affecting their profit margin. This disconnect is in turn slowing down the economy and, with inflation, we are seeing a sharp drop in the purchasing power of the people,” he said.
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Akintunde was critical of the floating exchange rate regime currently operated by the government, which has contributed to the weakening of the naira, making foreign exchange difficult to access.
Akintunde noted further that greater investment in the real estate sector, particularly facility management, was important for the growth of the economy, explaining that this was due to the direct and indirect employment opportunities the sector provides for the masses.
He reasoned that facility management could be the key to enhanced revenue generation for FG through tourism. He noted that, with professional facility managers, the poor maintenance culture bedeviling the nation would be a thing of the past while the national tourist centres would be properly maintained.
“One of the many values of facility management is in increasing productivity and profitability of other sectors of the economy. As facility managers, we provide enabling environment for others to thrive. We are the reason people can go to their offices and function as they should because we have removed all encumbrances to productivity.
If the air conditioning units of an office were bad or the office itself were not clean or had plumbing issues, then I am sure that no one would be able to function optimally from that location,” he explained.
The Advocacy Day is an annual event instituted by the current IFMA Nigeria executives led by Segun Adebayo, President, of IFMA Nigeria. This was the sophomore gathering.
