Erubami Advocates Facility Management as Solution to Nigeria’s Building Problems

By Fadekemi Ajakaiye

Quality shelter remains an essential lifeline for the sustainability of any society, and with the growth in Nigeria’s population, professionals have stated the imperative of providing and maintaining requisite facilities for sustainable development.

On account of this, a top expert in facility management, Paul Erubami, has raised concerns over the process of meeting these needs, which might fall short of the required standard without the involvement of facility management.

Erubami, founder and CEO of Max-Migold Ltd, a facility management company, called for refocusing on efficient management of the built environment, through facility management.

“Nigeria is building at a pace that has never been seen before anywhere on the continent. Technology is advancing in such a way that we are having new types of buildings; green, smart, intelligent buildings. We are also developing more interests in the facility management industry in Nigeria, but we lack the capacity. There is no organisation focusing on building capacity for managing our built environment.

“There is more focus on mass constructions, mass housing, and new infrastructure. But it takes a lot to keep these assets’ value up and running. We have identified gaps in knowledge and skills of managers. People are being drafted in from construction, engineering, and other fields to manage buildings without a facility management consultant, who understands how buildings degrade over time, the experiences of people over the useful life of a building. Because facility management is a multi-disciplinary field, nobody is really focusing on the body of knowledge for managing buildings.

“We also found huge deficit in energy efficiency, energy provision for the facilities. This does not necessarily mean we have enough power for our built environment, because we are wasting 40% of the power we are generating. We engage with a lot of clients across the country and realise that we could save electricity and diesel cost for up to about 30-40% just by intervening and using some smart systems. We want to close that gap through training.”

He believes there is an increasing demand and vacancy in the facility management space in Nigeria, stating that basic shelter can transform to new heights of safety, comfort and functionality through innovative implementation of quality facility management.

Erubami, who is vastly-learned and well-travelled, also has competencies in facility management trainings facility advisory, facility quality audits, efficient energy management, asset management, recruitment, and document digitisation, among others.

He also teaches practical facility management courses to Masters Students in Facility Management at the University of Lagos.

Erubami said with his repertoire of academic and professional accomplishments, he is qualified to officially teach IFMA CFM, FMP and SFP Certification Courses such as Operations and Maintenance, Project Management, Leadership and Strategy, Finance and Business, Strategy and Alignment for Sustainable Facility Management, Managing Sustainable Facilities, as well as Operating Sustainable Facilities.