Section 13: Certificate of experience

(1) Any person who, having qualified as a surveyor by examination after the commencement of this Act of not earlier than two years before its commencement, as the case may be, satisfies the conditions specified in subsection (2) of this section, may apply for and shall be entitled to receive, free of charge, a certificate of experience in the prescribed form from the person mentioned in subsection (2) of this section, entitling him to be fully registered as a surveyor under this Act and such certificate shall, when received by the person provisionally registered, be filed with his application for full registration.
(2) The conditions referred to in subsection (1) of this section are that-
(a) he shall have served his time for the prescribed period in Nigeria in an approved office with a view to obtaining a certificate of experience;
(b)
he shall, during his service in the approved office, have acquired practical experience under the personal supervision and guidance of at least one or more surveyors for such period as may be prescribed; and
(c) the manner in which he carried out the duties in the approved office and his conduct shall have been satisfactory.
(3)
It shall be the duty of the employer, being a surveyor supervising the work of a person employed with a view to obtaining a certificate of experience, to ensure that a person so employed is afforded proper opportunities of acquiring the practical experience required for the purposes of paragraph (a) of subsection (2) of this section.
(4) Where, after having completed the prescribed period, a person affected applies for and is refused a certificate of experience he shall be entitled-
(a) to receive from his employer particulars in writing of the grounds of the refusal; and
(b)
to appeal from the refusal to a committee of the Council in accordance with the rules made by the Council in that behalf (including rules as to the time within which appeals are to be brought),
and on any such appeal the committee may either dismiss the appeal of or itself issue the certificate of experience in question or give such other direction in the matter, as it considers just.
(6) For the purposes of this section, "approved office" includes-
(a) the office of-
(i) the Surveyor-General of the Federation;
(ii) the Surveyor-General of a State;
(iii) the Survey Department of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja;
(iv) any licensed surveyor in Nigeria;
(v) the Department of Survey in each university or school recognised by the Minister to be engaged in the training of persons seeking to become surveyors;
(b) the office of the Head of Survey Regiment Corps of Engineers of the Nigerian Army;
(c) the office of the Hydrographer of the Nigerian Navy; and
(d) the officer of the Head of Aerial Photographic Unit of the Nigerian Air Force.
(7) Regulations made under section 21 of this Act may provide for the issue of certificates of experience in respect of employment and institutions outside Nigeria.