BY LAJU ARENYEKA

Head of the Department of Building, University of Lagos, Prof. Godwin Idoro, has said that Nigeria has the highest construction cost in the world.

Idoro said recently at the department’s 9th Annual Project Management Lecture titled; Economic Transformation through Infrastructural Development: The Role of Project Management. The lecture was presented by the Minister of Works, Arc. Mike Onolemenmen represented by the Director of Highways, Federal Ministry of Works, Engr. K. Abdullahi.

Idoro said; “Government agencies have devised a new strategy of compensating members of their Board of Directors, Governing Councils, politicians/legislators and top civil servants by allocating a number of the projects in their capital budgets to them.

“These people in turn, sell the contracts to the highest bidders. Studies have established that construction cost in Nigeria is the highest when compared to other countries. A situation where the cost of a client- financed project is higher than a similar Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) project is beyond comprehension.”

Onolemenmen said; “Project management holds the key to the realisation of government’s plans in infrastructure development; without which the National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan could end up as another white elephant project. Talking about white elephants, Nigeria has quite a number of them due to the neglect to engage project managers with the requisite project management skills to see the project from conception to finish. This has been the bane of our nation in infrastructural development.”

The Dean, Faculty of Environmental Studies, Prof. Leke Oduwaiye said; “Infrastructure is the engine room of development. Until we fix it, we are simply joking with development. Infrastructure must be fixed and managed.”

The Chairman of the occasion, Mr. Akin Oguniran who is the CEO, UACN Property Development Company also spoke on the need to improve upon infrastructure. He said; “Nigeria has about 17 million units of housing deficits. Right now, there are only about 400,000 housing units produced annually. That is not enough.”