Yusuf Aro-Lambo

Senior Surveyor, Office of the Surveyor-General of the Federation and National Coordinator, Young Surveyors Network – Nigeria

Yusuf Aro-Lambo (3rd from left) meets with YSN leadership at the FIG Working Week 2013 hosted in Abuja Nigeria

The FIG (International Federation of Surveyors) initiative for young geospatial professionals—the YSN (Young Surveyors Network)—has been successful in outreach, education, and attracting youth to seek and build futures in such essential professions. A particular success story of YSN outreach is in the rapidly growing economy of Nigeria – a boom in geospatial awareness, implementation, and innovation.

Abuja Nigeria hosted the FIG Working Week in 2013, and YSN activity has only increased since. To a great extent, the success of the YSN in Nigeria has been due to the tireless efforts of its leadership, with particular honors for Yusuf Aro-Lambo, the national YSN coordinator.                      

Yusuf has taken time to travel around the country to deliver lectures at universities and high schools on the importance of geospatial technology to the growth of national economy and efficient nation-building. As a result of such efforts, the YSN has grown to 1,500+ across Nigeria.

The group has developed a Train the Trainers initiative and has trained several hundred young surveyors in subjects including watershed analysis, utilization of GIS software, GNSS and GNSS reference stations, developing land information systems, and more. Look for an upcoming article featuring Yusuf and the successes of the YSN in Nigeria. The Train the Trainers model would be a fine initiative to pursue for YSN groups in other regions.