Real estate operators move to bridge gaps in assets management, launch Edge FM

It was an exciting moment for the facilities or assets management industry in Nigeria on Thursday as three real estate operators partnered to form a new company aimed to redefine and also bridge identified gaps in the industry and its practice.

The facilities management industry in Nigeria is still evolving and largely unregulated, thus making it an all-comers’ affair. The industry is populated by non-professionals in the built environment including lawyers, interior designers, furniture makers and even dare-devil bricklayers answering facilities managers.

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Worried by this development which impacts negatively on assets functionality and durability, a crack team of hard-nosed professionals comprising Chudi Ubosi of Ubosi Eleh + Co; Gbenga Olaniyan of Estate Links, and Hakeem Oguniran of Eximia Realties Company came together and formed Edge FM.

Edge FM, according to these professionals, who are designated as Directors in the company, is a product of intensive and extensive research that took them about three years to conclude. The firm has Peju Fatuyi, an architect and certified energy manager, as chief executive officer.

“We are out to give strategic oversight and improve corporate governance in the facilities management industry. We have identified gaps in the market which we think we can fill with Edge FM. We are here to do things differently from the way they are done currently,” Olaniyan disclosed in his opening remarks.

He disclosed further that it is the vision of the company to be the preferred facility management company that guarantees value accretion, minimises environmental impact and achieves great returns on investment for clients across the continent.

He added that the company is out to improve the quality of life of their people, including staff, clients, and property users; and to contribute to the advancement of the communities in which they operate.

In his presentation on ‘Estate Planning: Leaving a Generational Legacy,’ Adekunle Awojobi, the managing director of FBNQuest Trustees Limited, highlighted the importance of planning one’s assets properly before death comes knocking.

“People should put up a plan for their families before death comes knocking to minimize crisis that often follows death of property owners,” Awojobi advised, noting that estate planning is just another expression for assets planning.

He explained that ‘next of kin’ which is one of the many myths inherent in estate planning, does not give any right or entitlement to the person who is so called, adding that the next of kin is just the person who should be contacted when there is need to ask questions.

Awojobi explained also that ‘the will’ which many people leave behind when they die is a testamentary document expressing a person’s wishes as to how his/her properties should be distributed after his/her death.

“Wills minimise crisis after the death of the head of a family or a property owner. If you don’t manage your assets very well, you will hand over a serious problem to the next generation,” he said.

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Expectations are high that the new FM company will take the industry very far given the professional competence and experience of the three directors who, according to Victor Alonge, the First Vice President of Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors ad Valuers (NIESV), have done well in their respective practices.

Alonge disclosed that in the next couple of months, the industry would be witnessing another major development that will help not just the industry but also the economy at large.