Alozius Gonza, a valuer and director of GMT Consultants Ltd is the new president of the Institution of Surveyors of Uganda (ISU), an umbrella of 1962 members. 

The membership includes land surveyors, valuers, quantity surveyors and mining and hydrological surveyors.

Gonza, who is also Vision Group’s TOP 40 under 40 finalist (2021), was inaugurated at ISU annual general meeting over the weekend. 

Some of the attendants who received certificates.

The event happened at Imperial resort beach Hotel Entebbe under the theme; Legal Framework and Practice for Professionals, a regional outlook.

Gonza previously served as vice president. He now succeeds Dr Nathan Kibwami, a quantity surveyor who has served for two years.

According to their constitution, voting for the ISU president is not direct but done at the vice president level. In other words, the vice president becomes president-elect and automatically takes over the office when the president’s term expires after two years. 

Meanwhile, the two-day event was officiated by the vice president, Hon. Jessica Alupo, ministers; Judith Nabakooba for lands housing and urban development, Dr Sam Mayanja for lands, professionals and members of the business community.

Mayanja thanked the NRM government for the commendable approaches in ensuring a conducive economic environment, attributable to the prevailing peace and security. 

For that he said, professions such as surveying can now grow in both market relevancy and the numbers of trained and registered professionals. 

However, he noted that a lot has to be done more so with reviewing the legal framework for surveyors, right from engaging line ministries such as the Ministry of Lands Housing and Urban Development, Ministry of Works and Transport, and Ministry of Water and Environment. 

“As experts in land and built-environment related matters, surveyors are very important in the development of our country,” he said.

In his inauguration speech, Gonza thanked Dr Kibwami for the selfless service, generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout his tenure.

He also pledged to work with the 32nd governance council and the Surveyor's Registration Board (SRB) to address challenges including; delays surveyors face while processing their work, and high cases of indiscipline among land surveyors and valuers. 

These include; multiple titling; overlapping titles; overvaluations of property, price undercutting among professionals and stealing jobs from one another.  Other challenges are; individualism, hatred, and staling of the SACCOs.

“We shall strive to end the petty grievances, recriminations and worn-out dogmas that seem to sow seeds of discontent. We are a profession and not a political party,” he said.

He implored members to reaffirm their individual ambitions, greater than all the differences in land surveying, valuation, quantity surveying, mining and hydrological surveying.

“We will engage the commercial banks on the bad terms they are giving us and work with the board to create ethical codes of conduct to govern our professions,” he pledged adding; “We shall continue to lobby and transform surveying in universities to meet the demands of a new age by working with heads of departments.”