Worried by lack of structures as obtained in other jurisdictions, Global Property and Facilities International (GPFI) Limited is canvassing the setting up of structures, especially standards, that will regulate and drive the growth of real estate (RE) and facilities management (FM) industry in Nigeria.
Authorities of the company are calling on serious players in the industry to join them to create a body that will make the industry viable by setting industry standards that will regulate and grow the industry, pointing out that whatever systems there are, at the moment, have not contributed to any significant improvement in the structure and professionalization of the industry.
“In South Africa and Middle Estate, there are very strong industry structures that influence registration, education, professionalism and global best practice which cannot however, be done by one company or individual”, MKO Balogun, the MD/CEO of the company, noted in an interview with BusinessDay.
As a company, GPFI is a product of the pioneering efforts of professionals in the facilities management industry since 2000 which gave birth to Facilities Management Company (FMC) Limited.
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According to Balogun, FMC later transited to WSP FMC with the bringing on board of the global Engineering Design, Project Management & Environmental Services Company subsidiary of the WSP Group in 2003, adding that in 2012, the company acquired Domme Facilities Management, one of the fastest growing and highly professional FM companies in Nigeria.
“Changes in the global business focus of WSP led to her divesting business interest from facilities management in South Africa and Nigeria in 2013, focusing purely on Engineering Design & Project Management. The entity in South Africa, which was fully owned by WSP, was sold to Broll Group while the Nigeria entity was sold to existing shareholders”, he said.
With these changes, he continued, “it became imperative that the Nigeria entity had to refocus and rebrand and that was how, in 2014, the company was renamed Global Property and Facilities International Limited with focus on three areas—Integrated Facilities Management, Property Management and Infrastructure Management (Operations and Maintenance)”.
Balogun assured that his company would continue to contribute to the growth of the FM industry through the way they operate as an organization through education and learning, industry awareness and partnerships, believing that time has come to restructure the industry for the benefit of the players and their clients.
The company is therefore, strategizing to organize a workshop that, it hopes, will bring professionals from all relevant sectors of the industry together to see how they can work together to achieve growth, development and increased contribution to GDP.
The GPFI boss reasons that this has become imperative given that RE and FM industry is part of the macro economy of any nation, explaining that the real estate industry in Nigeria is contributing about 7 percent to GDP while the value of the contribution of facilities management, though not measured officially, is about 3.5 percent of GDP.
“This estimate is based on the premise that facilities management has about 50 percent impact on cost of the value of real estate over useful life. Therefore, it is imperative to measure the impact of global and national economy on the growth and value creation of real estate and facilities management”, he posited.
