THE ROLES OF FACILITIES MANAGEMENT IN NIGERIA HOUSING SECTOR

THE ROLES OF FACILITIES MANAGEMENT IN NIGERIA HOUSING SECTOR

Gabriel Kuye Olusegun, PhD student, Inclusive and Sustainable Environments, School of the Built Environment and Engineering, University of Bolton, UK GKO1RES@bolton.ac.uk

Dr Margaret Nelson, Reader in the Built Environment, Inclusive and Sustainable Environments, School of the Built Environment and Engineering, University of Bolton, UK M.Nelson@bolton.ac.uk

ABSTRACT

Facilities Management (FM) is a relatively new concept in Nigeria, and there is still a misconception of what FM really is. Most practitioners still limit its scope to that of property management (PM) whereas FM transcends beyond the many traditional aspects of PM to include several other aspects drawn from other disciplines. In recent years, FM has elicited great interest in Nigeria especially in real estate as it is now being seen as the solution to the myriads of problems besetting real estate developers, the users of real estate products, and practitioners in the built environment. FM has become so popular that it has gone beyond the commercial real estate sector and it has now become fashionable to incorporate FM practice into residential PM. FM application to housing could be said to be novel as its focus has primarily been on the workplace. This paper is a first step towards addressing FM and developing literature on the important roles of FM in this all-important housing sector. It will present initial findings of a PhD research and highlight gaps in literature, and areas for future research.

1.1    INTRODUCTION

Housing simply refers to the totality of a habitable environment that has a unit of dwelling as its centre. Housing is not only the fabric of a building but the fabric together with the physical infrastructural facilities, services and amenities that make the building environment livable. The World Health Organisation (1962)  defined housing as the  physical structure that man uses  for shelter, and the environs desired for the physical and mental health and social well being of the family and individuals. Similarly, the federal government of Nigeria once stated that housing is universally acknowledge as one of the basic human needs with a profound impact on the life-style, health, happiness as well as productivity of the individuals.

Housing is not just shelter or fabric but part of the fabric of neighbourhood life, and of the entire socio- economic milieu. It touches on industrialization and employment, recreation infrastructures and security. As a matter of fact, it encompasses the immediate environment and all economic and social activities that make life worth living. The significance of housing cannot be over-emphasised, being one of the ways of meeting man’s most important needs – water, food, shelter and clothing.

Housing ought to be one and only thing to all people – the rich and the poor, the literate and the illiterate. Ogunmola (2000: 3) said it ought to be a system of congenial living, working and recreating environment consisting of shelter as one amongst many other subsystems, such as facility system (e.g. roads, paths, sewerage), utility system (e.g. water, gas, electricity, telecommunication) and amenity system (e.g. flowered and mowed garden, pleasant scenery, aesthetic landscapes). However, housing has not been the same to all people due to two main reasons: purchasing power differentials leading to the need for guided management of housing finance; and characteristics of housing itself; which Wahab (1995: 6) summarizes as being:

• That, housing is the highest investment an individual makes in his
• That, house cost is a multiple of a man’s annual income – usually 3 to 4 times in the case of developed
• That, housing finance has a long amortization period varying from 15 to 25 years.
• That, it reflects income level, taste and current economic
• That, only a few household can affords owner occupation.
• That, it reveals differences between the rich and the poor.
• That, there are usually distinctions between rural and urban
• That, house cost is a function of space, quality of materials and degree of completion at the point of

1.2      HISTORY OF HOUSING PROVISION IN NIGERIA

Housing evolved as man improved in his thinking and he realized that he needed housing for various uses other than shelter only (Onibokun, 1982). During the pre-colonial era, it was through the communal effort or through the effort of the extended family or age groups of the community that provision of housing was attained. In this same period land was communally owned with the consequent that no individual can lay personal claim to a piece of land in the community.

During the Colonial Era, there was a fast but uneven change in the housing development, the reason for this change was due to the development in government selected areas while other areas remained the same. During the post colonial era and after the country’s civil war, the need for housing became more pronounced and the increase in population also aggravated the need for housing and there came about the first National Development Plan of 1971 Staff Housing Scheme and also Lagos Executive Development Board (LEDB) established in 1972.

In 1972, the Federal Government aimed at providing 60,000 dwelling units nationwide, 15,000 in Lagos and 5,000 in each of the other state capitals. In 1973, the Federal Housing Authority was created to oversee the programme with Urban Development Authorities. Between 1972-1974, the National Council on Housing was established by the Federal Government towards modification of housing Scheme was may 1972, the Federal Government Staff Housing Scheme was put in place to take over the African Staff Housing Scheme of the colonial period, loans were also granted to private individual with the aim of securing better housing and increasing the supply of housing. The third National Development plan was established between the year 1975 and 1980.

In 1983, under the Military Government, housing programme received a significant boost and there was promulgation of Decree No. 55 of 1989 for the establishment of Primary Mortgage Institutions (PMIs) to be licensed by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria. The Decree No.53 of 1989 authorised the licensing of PMIs as specialised institutions to collect households savings and originate mortgage loan.

In 1991, housing shortage were estimated at about 5 million units and National Housing Policy was developed to ensure that all Nigerians own or have access to decent housing accommodation affordable cost by the year 2000. During this period as well, a National Housing Fund (NHF) was created by Decree No.3 of 1992 to subsidize affordable Mortgage loans and analyze long term funding for Primary Mortgage Institutions (PMIs) and this is to be managed by the Federal Mortgaged Bank of Nigeria (FMBN).

In 1994, the National Housing Programme was designed; its major goal is the provision of about 121,000 housing units and the major funds for this scheme is expected to come from the mandatory contribution from employees of 2.5% of the basic wages to the Housing Fund and an interest rate of 4% should accrue to such contribution made under the housing fund. In 1999, Nigeria intensified reform process was aimed at salvaging the collapsing economy, addressing the pressing issues of sustainable development and poverty reduction. According to Kwanashie (2003), one particular area in which some significant success had been made in the last three year is in the area of housing and urban development. Nigeria’s urbanisation rate is one of the fastest in the world, indeed the growth rate of Nigeria‘s major cities such as Lagos, Abuja, Kano is ranked among the world’s fastest growing cities (Omole, 2001). Kwanashie further stated that between 2004 and 2005, the increase in population is estimated to be about 41% due largely migration of people from other parts of the country. These phenomenal population increases brought monumental problems in the wake especially in the area of housing provision for the teeming masses. As a result of this, specific actions have been taken by the government to involve the direct inputs into housing.

Under the housing sector, different strategies have been adopted by government. For example, as part of its determination to meet housing need identified under the National Housing Policies, a prototype housing scheme was launched in order to increase the nation’s housing stock. The scheme, which was on a revolving fund ensure that proceeds from the sale of completed units are ploughed back into the scheme.

2.2 FACILITIES MANAGEMENT (FM) PRACTICE AND ITS EMERGENT IN NIGERIA

Facilities management as it is called in Britain or Facilities Management in the United States of America or FM in short was first conceived in the United States of America three decades ago and has since gained ground in the advanced countries of Europe, Japan and Australia. According to Owen (1995) “FM become recognized as an identifiable management concept in the United States at the start of eighties and has been practiced in the UK since about 1983”. It is now enjoying a rapid spread in the developing countries of Africa including Nigeria. The proponents of facilities management present it as a co-coordinated and integrated approach to all problems of business and property management. Its detractors view it as a monetary incursion of a brief span into the disciplines.

BIFM (2004) has formally adopted the definition of FM provided by CEN the European Committee for Standardisation and ratified by BSI British Standards: “Facilities management is the integration of processes within an organisation to maintain and develop the agreed services which support and improve the effectiveness of its primary activities”. Regtersclot (1988) describes FM as “the integral management (planning and monitoring) and realization of housing, services and means that must contribute to an effective flexible and creative realization of an organization’s objective in an changing environment”. The International Facilities Management Association (IFMA) defines FM as “the practice of coordinating the physical work place with the people and work of the organisation. It integrates the business administration, architecture and the behavioural and engineering services” This definition portrays facilities maintenance as the all comer’s profession that it is.

Park (1994) defines FM as “the structuring of building, plant and contents to enhance the creation of the end product. The end product can in this case be tangible manufactured item or a service, in either case the product benefit in competitiveness and quality. Park’s definition or “the end product” may tend to be narrow when viewed in the context of total quality maintenance. As for Alexander (1996), FM is “the process by which an organization delivers and sustains support services in a quality environment to meet strategic need” His definition fits Total Quality Management definition of service to client. “Strategic need” could be the need of customers, employees, suppliers, investors or the community. The word “process” can be defined as “series of operations deliberately undertaken” Therefore, facilities management can be seen as series of operations deliberately undertaken to provide and maintain support services. Krabber (1997) showed that commitment to client satisfaction makes good business sense in FM. The service provided by an airport for example is not just building but an environment of leisure, security and relaxation. This includes shops, customs, luggage handling, information desk and all other services at departure and arrival. The facilities manager’s duty is first to identify the strategic issues at such facilities; furthermore, he needs to concentrate his effort at improving the level of services to the different customers. Verstringhre (1997) demonstrates that the service provided by a scattered restaurant business is not just building. They also provide services to give their customers value for money (good food, fast services, good environment, good atmosphere, safety, leisure and so no). These are all user-driven services for which FM provides the solution.

FM encompasses multi-disciplinary activities within the built environment and the management of their impact upon people and the workplace.

Effective facilities management entails the ability to combine the available resources and activities with a view to achieving success of any organisation. At a corporate level, FM contributes to the delivery of strategic and operational objectives. On a day-to-day level, effective facilities management provides a safe and efficient working environment, which is essential to the performance of any business – whatever its size and scope.

The date when FM was started as a profession is not exact, but with the awareness of it in Nigeria, many companies have adopted the new discipline in the management of properties in their portfolio. But the profession has remained the fastest growing professional discipline in the last three decades. FM requires a multi disciplinary approach for it to provide a framework for professionals to view properties in the rightful context. Within this fast growing professional discipline, facilities managers have extensive roles to play in housing by providing, maintaining and developing myriad services. These range from property management, space management and communication infrastructure to building maintenance, administration and contract management.

FM is known to be adequate provision of facilities and its maintenance. It is a relatively new profession and/or discipline, first established about three decades ago in United States of America and has now taken root in major countries of Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Its development in most developing countries is yet to be pronounced. But the potentialities in countries such as Nigeria, Pakistan, Argentina, Brazil, India, China, Malaysia, South Africa, Egypt, etc with large population and urban settlement that requires facilities, to satisfy their industrial, commercial, residential and recreational needs should be covered. Formal training at the postgraduate level already exists in most university and other institutions of higher learning in the western countries. Masters degree and post graduate diploma courses in facilities management abound in faculties and departments that teach and offer research opportunities based on the built environment. This is equally required in developing counties, such as Nigeria in order to firmly establish and plant the roots of facilities maintenance not only in the country but also in other parts of the continent.

FM has not found wide application in Nigeria, in both the private and public sectors. Facility maintenance emergence could be attributed to the activities of some organizations and multinationals in Nigeria with American origin particularly those in the oil industry. The need to provide a good working and living environment has made them embrace all the tenets of facilities management. And their experience has revealed a lot and exposed the hidden fact that facilities management is mainly relevant when it commences from real estate activities, or site acquisition on which the facility shall be developed. In Lagos State for example, FM has been extensively applied to some residential estates like the NNPC and the CHEVRON estates to ensure the management of space, facilities and the real estate activities as a whole. Also, Amuwo Odofin Housing Estate has its facilities being managed by the Lagos Building Investment Company (LBIC). Many definitions have been advanced for facilities management from year to year which are analyzed below:

2.2  FEATURES OF HOUSING ESTATE AND THE INTEGRATION OF FM

• Physical Characteristics: The distinctive feature of all property as a commodity is that it has long physical life; the design, layout and structure of housing must, therefore be adaptable to changing styles and fashions in order to avoid obsolescence.
• Population Characteristics: According to Reilly’s law, it draws attention to the importance of population weight as a measure of planning an area. The actual composition of the population must be examined to justify its demand for goods and services. The number, age pattern, marital status, rate of growth and special characteristics of the population need to be ascertained and interpreted; therefore, a survey has to be collated regarding population information normally obtainable through a census figure. For example where a residential development is proposed, the form of the scheme will be considerably influenced by the categories of people it is to serve, be it elderly or young, contained in larger families or small, or is expanding or declining, use future population growth is a thing to put into consideration.
• Physical layout of the estate: Economic background analysis, in addition to giving an impression of demand should also reveal how it can best be served in the physical layout of an estate. If the potential demand for a housing estate is from persons with young families, then the properties can be designed to fit the needs of children. In most cases, the broad requirements of a development are very similar, as people’s needs and tastes are generally much the same.
• Amenities and Services: Amenities and services are essential ingredients to housing, the absence of which may constitute functional inefficiency. These amenities and services can further be categorized into three general classes namely:

(i)   Utilities

It includes all facilities stated below:

• water distribution network
• electricity and street lighting
• surface drainage
• sewage collection disposal
• refuse collection network
• gas distribution network
• telephone network
• Access roads or streets (minor & closes)

(ii) Public Facilities

• hospitals, clinics and health centres
• transportation, (driveways and parking spaces)
• police and security
• fire
• meeting halls, school, libraries and other public
• open

(iii)    Commercial Facilities

• market ad shops
• repairs workshops and service industries
• entertainment facilities

Provision of facilities which like housing is essentials to the creation of a satisfactory social entity, should be made at the earliest possible stage. They are of course, not by any means all the responsibility of the housing agency. It is important for the housing agency to liaise with other concerned to ensure that the facilities are planned and provided simultaneously with the housing it is important in particular to provide a club house or community center for adults and playgrounds for small children who cannot be expected to go far into a field for their recreation. It is at the early stage of development that the need is likely to be felt most acutely and if here is long delay before such facilities are provided there is a risk that a poor social attitude may develop on the estate and that the task of rehabilitation at a later date will be doubly difficult. This is yet another instance of prevention being better and considerably easier than belated attempts at a cure.

The integration of FM into the development of any housing estate will begin from the early stage of development; the project manager should made adequate provision for good space utilization and resources. FM consultancy identified certain key activity areas which include real estate project management, space management, premises operation and office support services. The scopes of the practice have an edge over most other professionals that make up the FM team because they are already recognized as experts in project management.

FM is an evolving professional field in the country with the development of huge real estate based facilities. The centre systems development is a major group of the built environment which falls within the core practice terrain of the estate surveyor including its management requirement. They include “single-purpose, multi-purpose or multi-use, high density real estate complexes with build space in different forms as major focal end product. FM is meant to mean the practice of coordinating the physical work place with the people and work of the organisation, integrating the principles of business administration, architecture and behavioural and engineering science. Or simply put the management of people places and things. Facilities management is the integration of multi-disciplinary activities within the built environment and the management of their impact upon people and work place.

2.3    IMPORTANCE OF FM IN HOUSING MANAGEMENT

Some of the importance of integrating FM into housing is to:

• enhance a higher value of the property.
• make like comfortable of the occupant or user in the building.
• be able to maintain the facilities continuously and consistently with regularity in order to prevent it from collapsing, falling apart or giving way. In this regard, a good facilities manager must be competent, understanding, awareness and knowledge of the particular facility being managed.
• improve the turnover or the fortunes of the organisation, but to help the company not to loose money through shoddy maintenance practices, ineffective and expensive use of space, lack of attention to health issues, lack of bench marking and not paying attention to cost of operation among others.
• improve productivity.

3.1      CHALLENGES OF FACILITIES MANAGEMENT (FM) IN NIGERIA

Facility management is yet to attain professional status in Nigeria. According to Adisa (1998), many people are totally unaware of facility management and facility management systems in Nigeria. Consequently, FM can, at best, be described as a discipline, to the extent that it is taught at post graduate level in some institutions abroad. Even then, it is taught as a specialist course in subordinate capacity.

Professionalism is based upon the attainment of a discrete body of knowledge acquired through a prolonged and specialized training which conveys an exclusive right to practice. The practitioner places public interest above that of the client, personal or professional interests. The “profession” enjoys legal monopoly in the practice of the profession as an exclusive reserve of the practitioners. Such legal monopoly is reinforced by a Law or Act recognizing the body or institute that regulates the practice through a code of conduct and a scale of charges, and prescribing specified exposure and practical training periods. The profession also specifies the scope of work and coverage.

For FM, the scope of work has not been clearly defined, neither has it got an exclusive area of knowledge which is not shared by other discipline. The subject matter is so wide that it is absolutely impossible for a single individual to encompass them. Approach period of practical training or exposure which must be spend under supervision of a qualified member. Furthermore, for a discipline such as FM to evolve as a profession, a body recognised Law or Act of Parliament must be in existence to regulate the activities of the profession, protect the interest of the public from abuse, design a code of ethics to guide the conducts of professionals or practitioners, to conduct examinations and award certificates and prescribe such of charges. All these have not been put in place for FM in Nigeria; hence it remains a discipline for now.

The FM discipline being relatively new is not enjoying the desired popularity mainly because not all the professionals would agree that Facilities Management as a discipline is different from Property Management for various reasons or motives as the case may be. Therefore the major challenge of facilities management in Nigeria is that of misconception:

• The notion that FM and PM are the
• That FM is an arm of PM
• That FM is foreign and irrelevant to the nation in any way.

As indicated by Omirin (2000), there is need to jettison misconception created by undue professional egotism and parochialism and adopt an unbiased if not dispassionate stance. These mindsets are major obstacles to the growth and development not of FM alone but the nation as a whole because the emergence and embrace of the discipline in various developed countries has shown a positive growth trend in the socio-economic status of these countries.

Awareness: The level of public awareness of FM can be said to be non-existent going by the ratio of those that are knowledgeable of it and those that are not with reference to the population of the country. This could be said to be due to the fact that the discipline is relatively just gaining grounds in the country.

Confusion as to who the facility manager is: Also the issue of who a facility manager is and what qualification should a facility manager hold is a big issue. Some professionals say by right, the Valuer should be accorded that title while others believe one should be trained.

Non-acceptance by professionals for fear of losing identity and relevance: There is a great tendency by professionals in the real estate industry and other environmentalist such as the Valuer of not accepting or  embracing the discipline initially, which  to my opinion is  the  phase the country is experiencing now, unfortunately. This is one of the major factors responsible for most of the misconception even though some are genuinely due to ignorance. The fear of losing their jobs or not being relevant in the industry is the motive for this act of sabotage.

Lack of maintenance culture: It is a common knowledge that the average Nigerian is unperturbed about the maintenance of infrastructure

3.2    STEPS THAT CAN BE TAKEN TO ENSURE A CONFLICT FREE EVALUATION OF WIDE-SPREAD ADOPTION OF FM PRACTICE IN NIGERIA

Awareness: Since misconception is a major challenge to facility management being a relatively new concept in the country, the right step which if properly taken will go a long to solve other problems because they are all attached to the it is proper and effective enlightenment programs to create the desired and most effective awareness. This type of awareness should be strategically planned and targeted at all the stake holders in the real estate industry and indeed the economy as a whole. The primary target should be students in the environmental studies faculty. The discipline should be introduced to their curriculum so as to give them the necessary foundational knowledge of the concept.

Seminars and retreats should be organised for professionals so as to get a grip on the potentials benefits of the discipline and consequently key into it or tap from it like some wise professionals have already done. Advertisements via the numerous media should also be an avenue of awareness creation. The enlightened students/professionals should take it upon themselves to sensitize their immediate environment on the need to embrace this laudable concept. This method of awareness may look like an unnecessary one but practically speaking it is the most effective and by far cheapest. A well channeled awareness program will nip problems such as misconception, confusion as to who the facility manager is, and sabotage due un-acceptance by professionals for fear of losing relevance, in the bud to a very great extent.

4.0 CONCLUSION

Facility management is a relatively new profession, with its pioneering work having been laid out in the late 1960’s. Before that intensive period of industrial innovation, managing a property usually meant coordinating the wide spectrum of service options and systems associated with a building’s operation, electricity, water, air-conditioning, maintenance, security, furniture and equipment, and many others, without a centralized technological infrastructure. But with the development of increasingly more powerful information technology, the control and communication aspects of the facility’s management logistics could be handled faster and more efficiently, allowing facility managers to become bigger players in the corporate profitability stage. Today, with more sophisticated computers, more intelligent software applications and a technological innovation on the horizon, the early vision of facility management as a prose transforming a physical structure into a properly functioning and productive working environment is an everyday reality.

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