As part of celebrations to mark this year’s World Facility Management Day, stakeholders in the real estate industry organised a roundtable discussion to discuss the contribution of facility management to the real estate industry.

The event held at the Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City gathered over thirty industry players including engineers, architects and Investors in the real estate sector.

The event was held on the theme, “Enabling Positive Experiences”.

Presenting the first technical paper of the day, Group Managing Director of Alpha Mead Facilities, Femi Akintunde, encouraged property owners to implore the services of Facilities manages to ensure good value of their property.

He touted his company’s success in providing good quality service in Facility Management and noted that consulting a Facility Manager though expensive, results in a rise in the value of the property.

Managing Director of NTHC, Jerome Eshun, was glad that the real estate industry in Ghana is beginning to introduce and take seriously the aspect of facility Management.

He also indicated that the introduction of Facility Management in Ghana was positive for the industry as professionalism will come to the fore.

Challenges Facicility Management face in Ghana

Speaking on the side-lines of the roundtable discussion on Wednesday, Femi Akintunde, disclosed that low awareness and the level of Ghana’s current development was the cause of underutilisation of facility managers.

“We have not seen it as a necessity before now, but when I come to Ghana, I see more modern buildings being build. The last thing you want is for those buildings to begin to deteriorate. A lot of countries have entered into that trap. You can’t afford that in Ghana. You have a unique opportunity to get it right now, and put those things in place which advance countries of the world have done before now. So we need to feel the necessity and awareness level need to rise,” he noted.

He tasked the media to be a vehicle of development in Ghana by maintaining status as an attractive business destination and invite more foreign investments that will create employment.

He was however quick to add that, the services of the Facility manager is relatively costly and designed for the high earned.

“If you look at your fingers it’s not equal and everyone has a place in this world… When you talk of luxury and high end, it’s not for everybody but for those who need it and can afford it and those who need it to complement their businesses, to complement their lifestyle will pay for it, ” Mr. Akintunde.

Facility Management is a profession that provides quality services that guarantees real estate assets are fully optimised in terms of usage and the functions and value it’s delivering to the owners.

This roundtable event to commemorate the world FM Day is the first ever in Ghana and the organisers, AM Facilities assured participants that it will be institutionalised as a yearly affair.