Changes in Surveying Practices in Nigeria: Opportunities, Responsibilities and Challenges

The surveying practice in Nigeria is facing enormous challenges as technology and legislation create a new paradigm for employment and career opportunities. The surveying profession is currently facing the biggest challenge in its modern history. Developments in technology have had a significant influence on the structure of the surveying and mapping industry. The demand for traditional surveying services has seen a shift in demand as the breadth of the information society widens. The rapid technological change, micro-economic reform, procurement reform, privatization, regulation of the professions, and the Internet are placing pressures on traditional professional operations and structures of surveying practice in Nigeria. The situations which have never previously experienced, although the situations are beginning to present opportunities and challenges to surveying profession. For example, issues central to our profession such as cadastral reform, updating of maps and spatial data infrastructures are grabbing the attention of policy makers as they are beginning to realize the importance of surveying and mapping services in economic development, environmental management and social stability. The surveying practice has been undergoin