The president of the Africa Association of Quantity Surveyors (AAQS), Obafemi Onashile, said Friday that quantity surveyors need to be included by the government in the development infrastructure projects in Africa.

The AAQS president said this during a press conference here on Friday, hosted by the Institute of Namibian Quantity Surveyors, to bring awareness to the importance of quantity surveyors to look at the cost of projects so that it has a higher success rate.

He said many infrastructure projects remain unfinished because there is no quantity surveyor on the project team.

“Quantity surveyors should be able to participate in developing infrastructure projects and be developed enough to advise the government on these projects,” Onashile said.

Concurring with this statement, AAQS member Matthew Ngulube said quantity surveyors should advise the government and members of an infrastructure project on appropriate funding.

Ngulube highlighted the importance for the government to introduce a policy to make provision for local contractors to be more involved in projects instead of relying on foreign contractors.

“Foreign contractors often help build infrastructure and then disappear, leaving Namibians behind to deal with the debt,” he said.

He said local contractors in African countries are endangered because their government often turns to foreign contractors to join infrastructure projects.

Onashile added that the agriculture and construction sectors are the most productive, making it one of the most important sectors, especially in Namibia with the green hydrogen projects and oil discovery.

He said that as Africa lags behind in the construction sector, provision needs to be made to use local contractors.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency