Appraisal of Construction Health and Safety Risk Management in Nigerian Construction Industry – a Case Study of the Building Industry

Appraisal of Construction Health and Safety Risk Management in Nigerian Construction Industry – a Case Study of the Building Industry

CHAPTER ONE

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The overall aim of this research was to investigate the extent of the knowledge of Health and Safety practices among construction workforce and the compliance with the Health and Safety requirements on construction sites. This aim was actualized in the following specific objectives, to:

1. Evaluatethe construction risks inherent in the building sector of the construction     industry;
2. Examine the Health and Safety risk management processes adopted by the construction industry in Nigeria;
3. Validate the existence of the identified factors militating against Health and Safety practices in the construction industry in Nigeria; and
4. Investigate if there are established frameworks for effective Health and Safety risk management in the construction industry of Nigeria.

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

INTRODUCTION

For many years, the construction industry has been concerned with the prompt delivery of the project objectives: scope, cost, time, and quality. The concept of health and safety risk management in the industry forms one of the central pillars on which the actualization of these objectives is based although it may be true that organizations exist for the major purpose of making profit in the long run, they have also come to realize that an adequate health, safety and welfare of their employees cannot be separated from their continued effective existence (Idubor & Oisamoje, 2013).

This chapter reviews literature on the phenomenon-risk management, particularly as it affects health and safety of both the workers and the construction site. It shall amongst other things review literature on:-

• Risk
• Risk management
• The construction industry
• Health and safety

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

RESEARCH DESIGN

According to Onwumere (2009), research design is a kind of blue print that guides the researcher in his or her investigation and analysis. Yin (1994) noted that the decision for the choice of a research design should be based on the research style which is also dependent on the formulation of the research question. He therefore outlined some of the criteria for the choice of a research design in Table 3.1.

CHAPTER FOUR

PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA

This section dealt with the gathering of data, presentation and analysis of the relevant data obtained in the course of the study. Also, the three hypotheses formulated as indicated in chapter one were tested/analyzed.

CHAPTER FIVE

DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This section summarizes the various findings emerging from the study and aligns such findings with the objectives of this research. Conclusions and necessary recommendations were subsequently drawn based on the findings of the study.

SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION OF RESEARCH FINDINGS

FINDINGS BASED ON OBJECTIVES

OBJECTIVE ONE:

To evaluate the construction risks inherent in the building sector of the construction industry.

The results from tables 4.5 and 4.6 provide a proof that there is evidence of improper funding in the industry which affects the provision of all the necessary equipments and materials for the project. This lack contributed to the lack of provision of adequate health and safety risk management. The finding is consistent with the work of Oyedele (2013) whose analyses showed that the construction industry in Nigeria is underfunded by the government. The prevailing number of abandoned projects in the country was to a large extent a function of inadequate funding; the need to manage the funds at hand becomes paramount to project coordinators. Therefore, they resort to eliminating the process of risk management practices in their projects in order to save cost, and in most cases trying to save time at the expense of adequate actualization of project objectives. This lag in the adequate actualization of the project objectives is visible in projects devoid of risk management processes in their planning stage.

OBJECTIVE TWO

To examine the Health and Safety risk management processes adopted by the construction industry in Nigeria.

The chi-square test results from tables 4.8 and 4.9 have showed that the construction industry in Nigeria has no significant health and safety risk management process. The finding is consistent with the response gotten from the respondents in table 9 reveals that the percentage of the respondents that are aware of the risk management process but do not use it equals the number of respondents that is unaware of the process. This finding collaborated with the essay written by Swindoll (1997) as cited in Hillson & Murray-Webster (2007b) that the attitude of the project actors to risk goes a long way in determining how well they will respond to its existence and effect on the project hence its management. This attribute was also glaring as most of the respondents who admitted having used a risk management process could not outline briefly either the qualitative or quantitative process of risk analysis. Some of the respondents whose companies adopt a certain percentage of risk management admit that the company does so based on the policy stipulated by the government of its parents nation example of such is the Julius Berger Nig ltd. Literally table 8 presented a greater percentage of respondents who have not adopted any risk management process in their projects to be 55% of all the respondents. The figure is outrageous as it depicts more than half of the respondents.

OBJECTIVE THREE

To ascertain the problem militating against the implementation of Health and Safety practices in the construction industry in Nigeria.

The chi-square test carried out using tables 4.11 showed that the construction industry in Nigeria has witnessed a lot of problems militating against the implementation of health and safety practices during project conception and delivery. The result from the analysis corresponds to the findings of Okojie (2010), Kheni (2013) and Idubor et al (2013) that attributed the low level of health and safety implementation to the presence of militating factors in the industry and the country at large. This therefore reveals that if 50% of the problems are resolved, the industry will go a long way in adopting the use of health and safety risk management in the planning of their projects.

OBJECTIVE FOUR

To investigate if there are established frameworks for effective Health and Safety risk management in the construction industry of Nigeria.

The chi-square result obtained from table 4.11 row 5 revealed that there is no government established enforcement agency to regulate/monitor the implementation of health and safety risk management in the Nigeria construction industry. This finding is in line with the findings of Kheni (2008) who reported that inadequate government support for regulatory institutions and inefficiency of institutional frameworks are responsible for the non implementation of health and safety standards in the construction industry; and the findings of Okojie (2010), whose analysis revealed that the supposed established framework is weak and ineffective. The ministry of works and housing can function effectively in this area by establishing and monitoring regulations for health and safety risk management practices. This arm of the ministry should function as the newly established vehicle clampers we have in the cities of Abuja and Enugu that help in maintaining the free flow of traffic along the major roads in the two cities.

CONCLUSION

The main objective of this study is to investigate the extent of the knowledge of Health and Safety practices among construction workforce and the compliance with the Health and Safety requirements on construction sites. The effort was spurred by the increasing number of abandoned projects, loss of lives of construction workers and sustenance of temporal and permanent injuries from their place of work, which is as a result of the risk/uncertainty they are exposed to. From the results and discussion of the respondents’ responses we can conclude that the establishment of health and safety risk management enforcement agency and the adoption of safety policy in the workers act of the Nigerian constitution will help to improve the image of the industry and as well eradicate quacks from the system.  Any construction company that fails to recognize the essence of adequate provision of health and safety risk management practices especially as it affects the interaction between human, plants and the construction environment is doing a lot of disservice to herself. For the industry to progress and improve, the health and safety of all the parties involved in the everyday construction activities should be adequately taken care of so as to actualize the desired project objectives.

RECOMMENDATION

The result of this study have provided evidence to make a convincing case that an effective implementation of health and safety risk management in the construction industry in Nigeria will improve the image of the industry and as well help monitor the activities of the industry. In view of the foregoing, the following recommendations were made:

1. The construction companies should adopt aggressive safety campaigns/workshops on workplace hazards.
2. The companies should form safety circles at the operational level to identify and address workplace hazards.
3. They should organize regular training/re-training of safety personnel and the entire workforce on safe work procedures.
4. The top management personnel’s of the companies should get adequately committed to health and safety risk management issues.

SUGGESTION(S) FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

The findings of this study have exposed the state of the implementation of health and safety risk management in Nigeria construction industry, vis a vis the militating factors to its implementation. The research did reveal:

• The impact of health and safety risk management on the profitability of the construction industry.
• The comparative study of the performance of the industries (Production) that adopts adequate health and safety risk management process and the construction industries.
• Risk management as a tool for improving the competitiveness and profitability of construction industries globally.

CONTRIBUTION TO KNOWLEDGE

This research work made the following contributions to knowledge:

1. The result obtained through the use of Delphi’s technique with no restriction to experts in the field corresponds to the results obtained when the Delphi’s technique was limited to experts in the field.
2. Data from the second questionnaire were used to validate the response to the first questionnaire revealing that some respondents who admitted employing a certain percentage of risk management process in the first questionnaire could not clarify on which of the various health and safety risk management processes they are acquainted with in the second questionnaire thereby revealing the true state of the practice.

REFERENCES

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