Risk mitigation strategies to prevent the failure of civil engineering projects in Nigeria

The civil engineering construction industry in Nigeria has problems concerning time-critical material deliveries. This problem negatively impacts government and taxpayers with financial injuries from lost revenue and opportunities with ever increased costs. A possible cause of this problem is the lack of comprehensive applied knowledge about material procurement and procurement routing available within the construction industry. The desire was to decrease waste and improve project performance and completion by assessing different methodologies as identified by project managers as the most effective. The purpose of this qualitative study was to evaluate the most appropriate method that the government of Nigeria and other involved stakeholders within the civil engineering industry could apply to mitigate the risks to project success by evaluating different methodologies for material procurement and delivery risk mitigation. Five civil engineering project managers were interviewed. The interview transcribed and then coded to reveal themes. The overarching theme was the need to implement industry and national practices and expectations for just-in-time delivery. This coupled with better personnel management and material reclamation or reuse were identified as key to what is the most important for civil engineering project success in Nigeria.