Engr. Ademola Isaac Olorunfemi, NSE President

Funsho Arogundade.

The Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) is set to convene the annual Nigerian Engineering Conference from Monday 16 November to Friday 20 November. This year’s conference, tagged “National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan (NIIMP) 2014: Strategies for Implementation”, will hold at the International Culture and Event Centre in Akure, Ondo State.

Engr. Margaret Oguntola, NSE Vice-President and Conference Planning Committee Chair, explained that the annual conference is organised to propose and track innovative development programmes and improve the professional development of its members and socio-economic development of Nigeria as a whole.

According to her, the shortage of infrastructural facilities poses a major challenge to Nigeria’s economic development and indeed, constitutes an impediment to the achievement of the national targets. Similarly, the present poor condition of the existing ones seems to further exacerbate the situation.

“Our role as Engineers and as intellectuals is to analyse these issues and emerge with scientific, cogent and workable solutions for everyone with a role to play, “ Oguntola stated.

She added: “We have organised this edition in collaboration with the National Planning Commission because they are the organ of government directly responsible for formulating the action plan to solve this particular problem. This is the sort of approach we employ at the conference and across all other events and forums of the Nigerian Society of Engineers.”

Last year’s conference, which was held in Abuja doubled as the World Engineering Conference on Sustainable Infrastructure (WECSI 2014). The event attracted Engineers, students, business leaders and thought leaders from all over the world to discuss the problem of solving the infrastructure deficit in developing countries.

The 2015 conference aims to build on the legacy of WECSI 2014 by internalizing and localizing the solutions to suit the Nigerian environment.

Speaking on the theme of this year’s conference, Engr. Kehinde Temikotan, Local Organising Committee Chairman, said the choice of this theme is in his opinion very apt. “Our infrastructure is in a parlous state presently. There is an urgent need for increased capacities in roads, waterworks, electricity generation and distribution, IT and many other sectors, as well as preventative maintenance strategies,” he remarked.

The 2015 Nigerian Engineering Conference will feature keynote addresses from Norman F. Anderson, President/CEO, CG-LA Infrastructure Inc, USA and Aare Afe Babalola, SAN, President ABUAD. Also speaking at the conference will be the Executive Governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State.

Confirmed Partners and Sponsors of the 2015 conference include Ondo State Government, Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Flour Mills Nigeria Plc., Oando Energy, Eurobudinvest Nig Ltd, Elizade University, Ilara-Mokin, Samsung Electronic West Africa, Lafarge Plc., Kenol Nig. Ltd, Danalec Limited, O. T. Otis Engineering Ltd, International Breweries Ilesa, Fumman Group, AR-AR and Partners, Ceven Industries, Auchi, Celplas Industries Ltd and Siemens Limited.