Unemployment
By Lilian Okoro
Lagos, Aug. 3, 2018 (NAN) Mr Makinde Ogunleye, former Chairman, the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP) on Friday decried the high level of unemployment among town planners practitioners in the country.
Ogunleye, who spoke on the backdrop of the rate of unemployment affecting town planning practitioners in the country, made the observation in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
He said the rate of unemployment was high because town planning practice dealt mainly with government projects, which he noted were not forthcoming.
According to him, such government projects can be in form of regional plan at the local government level, sub-regional plan at the state level and master plan for cities among others.
He stressed the need for government prioritise physical planning, saying that it was through physical planning that projections and provisions for the future development could be ascertained and noticed by the people.
The expert said,“Plans foster economic development of the country. Nigeria needs a defined physical development plan to guide developments across states.”
Ogunleye expressed hope that the rate of unemployment of town planners would reduce, if town planners could improve on their skills and acquire more knowledge about the profession.
According to him, town planning profession has the potential to gainfully engage the service of every town planning practitioner who operates with the new techniques, developments and practice of the profession.
“Though the unemployment is not limited to the town planners, if town planners can explore and maximise the potential of town planning profession, their level of unemployment will reduce.“
He also stressed the need for ‘effective communication’ as an instrument for successful operation of town planning profession.
The NITP ex-boss said there was communication gap among operators in the town planning profession, adding that it had affected the growth of the profession.
According to him, town planning profession thrives on collaboration, saying players in the profession must come together to communicate and agree to be able to achieve their goals. (NAN)
LUC/ENN/DUA
Edited by Edwin Nwachukwu/Dada Ahmed