Purpose -Federal and State Governments began to explore more subtle alternatives for accessing private sector resources in the delivery and operation of public facilities. The purpose of this paper is to examine the types of infrastructural projects most suitable using public-private partnership (PPP) for executions and identify the critical success factors in PPP on infrastructural projects with a view to strengthening the partnership between the public (government) and private sector. The overall goal is to enhance infrastructural projects delivery in Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach -The primary data consists of survey questionnaires, drawn based on the identified factors on existing literature on critical success factors (CSFs). The structured questionnaires were administered on participants that were involved in the execution of PPP projects, either during the initial stage, construction stage or maintenance and operating stages in Lagos State. Findings -The results of the mean score ranking indicate that transportation, which include roads, rails and airports construction ranked highest followed by provision of electricity and water. Real estate and educational construction projects ranked lowest in terms of suitability of execution using PPPs. However, the result of the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicates that, there was no significant difference in the suitability of PPP for execution of the types of infrastructural projects delivery. The paper further identified nine CSFs in public-private partnerships as follows: competitive procurement process, thorough and realistic assessment of the cost and benefits, favorable framework, appropriate risk allocation and risk sharing, government involvement by providing a guarantee, political support, stable macroeconomic condition, sound economic policy and availability of suitable financial market. The study, however, showed that well organized and committed public agency; social support; project technical feasibility and multi-benefits objectives are the CFSs that are most important to the private investors. On the other hand, factors such as transparency in the procurement process; shared authority between public and private sector; thorough and realistic assessment of the cost and benefits; commitment and responsibility of public and private sector and strong and good private consortium are the CSFs that are most important to the public clients. Originality/value -The results indicated that there was no significant difference in the suitability of PPP for execution of infrastructural projects delivery. This shows that PPP is suitable for all types of infrastructural projects. What needs to be done is to ensure that all the success factors responsible for successful implementations of PPPs are well structured in a way that its optimum performance can be guaranteed. Also, in identification of the critical factors in PPP it would help to develop a body of PPP knowledge. This knowledge would help in the establishment of relevant laws, regulations and g...

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Construction activities in Nigeria are dominated by foreigners’ managed construction enterprises. These companies constitute less than 5 percent of the number of construction enterprises in Nigeria; however, they are involved in over 95 percent of high net-worth construction activities. Nigeria Indigenous Construction Enterprises (NICE) are faced with numerous challenges that have limited their performances. This makes construction clients to patronize foreigners’ managed construction firms because of the flaws in the performances of NICE. There have been measures on how to make NICE relevant, but most attempts have achieved little or no success. This study was aimed at examining the challenges of NICE in the face of the present scenario and to proffer ways of possible improvement. Primary data were collected by administering a structured questionnaire to both clients and contractors who are involved in the day-to-day construction activities. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, mean score and Kruskal-Wallis test. The study identified 25 challenges of NICE and 18 ways of improving NICE performance through careful literature reviews. The analysis of the total ranking among stakeholders revealed that limited technical expertise, insufficient profit on projects and delay in the payment of contractors for work done were the highest-ranked challenges. Application of project management techniques in construction activities, quality control of materials and improving production capabilities were the most important means of improving NICE performance as identified. The findings of this study will help to improve the competitiveness of indigenous contractors if well implemented as it will help to reduce the cost of construction as the competition nest for performing contractors will be widened.

A project is adjudged successful if it is completed to time, within the budgeted cost and meets client's expectation. However, there is the global issue of construction cost and time overruns, which has contributed to poor project performance. Contractors have always been seen as the culprit in this regard, whereas, the contractor is not solely involved in construction projects, there are other project team members who determine the path of the project success. This study assesses the causes of cost overruns, viewing this from the contractor's assessment of the contribution of its project team members. The study was conducted using questionnaire surveys in which 100 questionnaires were distributed to contractors using purposive sampling; data were analyzed by the use of descriptive statistics. The results show that lack of adequate pre-contract planning and project team coordination are the most significant factor among construction professionals leading to cost overruns. The study made recommendations which are of good benefit to the client, project team members and contractors.

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The continuous domination of the Nigeria construction industry by men remains an issue of concern to construction stakeholders as females in the Nigerian construction industry continue to be largely underrepresented. The objective of this study was to investigate the barriers to females' involvement in the Nigerian construction industry with a view to suggesting strategies that will assist to bridge this barrier. The survey reviewed literature on the level of female participation, the perceptions about women, the opportunities available to females and strategies of increasing the number of female participation in the industry. The instrument for data collection was obtained by the use of a survey questionnaire as well as the reviews of extant literature. The sampling method employed is stratified random sampling. The questionnaires were administered to built environment practitioners in consulting and contracting establishment in Lagos metropolis, Nigeria. The findings revealed that the barriers which influence female under-representation in the Nigerian construction industry include; the male-dominated structure of the construction industry, family commitments such as marriage and childbirth, masculine nature of the job, long working hours. The strategies recommended to bridge this barrier include the formulation of employment policies which prevent sexism, educating young women about the industry, providing better working conditions and flexible working policies for women, provision of incentives in order to attract more women into the Nigerian construction industry.