Stakeholders in the construction industry including engineers, quantity surveyors, builders and investors have converged on Lagos to chart a new path for the industry.
The three-day event tagged Big 5 Construct Nigeria brought together local and international companies to showcase products and services.
The exhibition began on Tuesday and will end on Thursday in Lagos.
The Nigerian Society of Engineers Deputy President Valerie Agberagba said that quality was key to making Nigeria’s construction industry better and more successful.
Agberagba said that having a better construction outlook for the country beyond 2026 would be a shared responsibility among stakeholders, including the government and private sectors.
‘’You and I, as Nigerians and as professionals, have our parts to play. Whether you are from the finance industry or anywhere else, you have your own part to play.
‘’We must finance responsibly by matching capital structure to project lifecycle costs.
‘’We must execute professionally by strengthening programmes, contracts and quality control, and we must maintain consistently by funding operations and protecting asset performance.
‘’Government must provide direction, creditability, approvals and accountability, but as developers and investors, we must bring market realism,” she said.
Agberagba added that effective governance and responsible capital were important.
‘’Contractors must deliver constructability, productivity, safety and quality.
“Let us do the right thing. Let us stop cutting costs to do things because we want to maximise profits,” she said.
Agberagba said the country must change how it perceived opportunities for development.
According to her, energy demand and industrial expansion will create opportunities for the country, if it must grow.
‘’Energy opens a lot of opportunities for us. It unlocks wider economic delivery alongside transportation and logistics.
‘’If Nigeria must grow, the economy gets better, job opportunities become available and projects delivered in time, we must look at our energy, power and transportation,” she said.
An expert in architecture, Mr David Olayiwola, said there was the need to address skills gap in construction and management.
Olayiwola spoke on the topic: “Building High-Performing Project Teams in a Talent-Constrained Market”.
He said that Nigerian contractors focused more on hiring and not team building.
“A high-performing team is a system. You need role clarity, trust, communication rhythm and psychological safety. Site managers must be trained to lead, not just instruct.
‘’Effective work delivery involves core skills; use digital tools to make scarce expertise travel further; equip workers with building information module.
‘’Also, standardise knowledge: do not allow your expertise leave your company; capture their expertise in a digital checklist,” he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that panelists at the event identified cost overruns, low productivity and poor risk management as major reasons for abandoned and failed road projects across Nigeria.
The panelists discussed: “Constructing Road Projects in Nigeria: Managing Cost, Productivity and Delivery Risks”.
They agreed that Nigeria did not lack road projects but was short of completed projects, adding that the country lacked delivery discipline. (NAN)
