To fill the vacuum created at the Association for Consulting Engineering in Nigeria (ACEN), following the appointment of  Suleiman Adamu, as the Minister of Water Resources by the federal government, the association has formally installed Charles Akinyele Akindayomi as its 17th President.
Until his appointment, the new president has been acting as a standby to the outgoing president.
Speaking after his inauguration, Akinyele, who is expected to run the affairs of the group for two years, pledged to move the association forward by collaborating with the government in areas of project procurements and advocate for strong government support. He also promised to ensure that only ACEN registered consultants are used through the enforcement of the regulatory policies of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) Act.
Akindayomi also urged government to embrace industrialisation and give Nigerian Engineers the space to create a prosperous country. He pointed out that it will be convenient for companies to involve in Corporate Social Responsibility activities, if they receive adequate government patronage.
On Scale of Fees, he stated that: “Another area of concern is that, some of our private sector clients insist on using the outdated Federal Government Scale of Fees which was issued in 1996, rather the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), recommended hourly rates, issued in 2015 which are charges for various cadres of engineering personnel for consultancy services.
“The federal government some times in this month issued an Executive Order outlining a procedure for planning and execution of projects, promotion of Nigerian content in contracts and science, engineering and technology. This is a bold and laudable effort of government to address the anomaly whereby Nigerian professionals are less favoured in the award of contracts to the advantage of foreign consultants and contractors,†he noted.
Speaking on the importance of industrialisation to the economy, he said a country without any form of industrialisation will not have an economy that is sustainable, pointing out that the time is now right for Nigeria’s government to set up support and develop light industries to produce household items.
He said: ‘’This will mop up all our graduates and unemployed engineering graduates. We can only create the country we dream of, when we give our Nigerian engineers the space to create solutions for different areas of human life.â€
Also speaking at the event, a former Governor of Ogun state, Gbenga Daniel, admitted that local consulting Engineers are not given enough opportunity to learn and grow.
“The biggest challenge we have as country is that we do not patronise our people, we keep looking for quality and do not provide enough opportunity for our people to learn on the job. It has always been surprising how we give even the smallest jobs to foreign companies. Like people usually say; Germany was built by Germans, Romans built Rome and if we think we are going to get anywhere if we keep bringing foreign companies to work for us, we would not learn and I think that is something we should change,†he said.