Ghana will join the world to celebrate this year’s World Facility Day, which falls on May 15, under the global theme, ‘Enabling positive experiences’ to educate the public on the effects of poor maintenance culture.
The day, aside focusing on facility management education, would also create awareness on the relevance of the new ISO Facility Management System Standard (FM ISO 41001) for Ghana.
Facility management is a profession that encompasses multiple disciplines to ensure functionality of the built environment by integrating people, places, processes and technology.
It is the day-to-day delivery of maintenance services on behalf of businesses to reduce their cost of doing business and meet their objectives.
Aside that, the facilities manager will ensure that the company complies with the law, meets its environmental targets, keeps to a strict budget and ensure that the environment is safe and protected for users of the premises.
Mr Sampson Opare-Agyeman, the President of IFMA, Greater Accra chapter of the International Facility Management Association (IFMA), at the media launch of the World Facility Day in Accra, said the association would organise a round-table discussion with industry players on the need to observe best practices in facility management.
He said the event would be held concurrently in Accra and Kumasi on May 15 to create the necessary awareness and influence positive change in the management of facilities in Ghana.
This would be followed by Facility Tour in both Accra and Kumasi on May 16, being championed by the Greater Accra chapter of the IFMA.
The IFMA was founded in 1980 as an association for facility management professionals, supporting over 24,000 members in more than 100 countries.
Mr Opare-Agyeman said the local theme for the celebration, ‘Empowering the facility manager through training to enable positive experience’ is to recognise the vital work done by the professionals to enhance national development.
He, therefore, urged members and non-members of the association to take advantage of the subsidised professional training programmes to equip themselves with the tools and skills needed to, at least, change the narrative of poor maintenance culture in the built environment.
“As a chapter, we want to influence both industry and government. From simple solutions of energy efficiency and sustainability, to the importance of facility management (FM) training and standardisation,” he said.
“It is our responsibility to not only to understand and benefit from policies affecting the built environment, but also provide the FM perspective to industry, elected officials and to influence legislation.”
