International Conference on Chemical, Civil and Environment engineering (ICCEE'2012) March 24-25, 2012 Dubai
Abandonment of Building Projects in Nigeria- A
Review of Causes and solutions
Olapade. Olalusi and Anthony. Otunola

of an owner’s legal right to a building, or the demolition of a
building.”
An abandoned construction project is an uncompleted
project in a time frame of a contract.
Hence, there is urgent need to look inward and examine
critical factors militating against project completion and
occupation in accordance with its conception.
Abstract—In Nigeria many housing projects are either
uncompleted or out rightly abandoned. The paper investigated
possible causes of project abandonment, its impact on the immediate
community, contribution to infrastructural decadence and
environmental pollution. Information was collated through personal
interview, questionnaire administration, and review of existing
literature and journals which formed the data base. While the data
analysis showed that non functional Government policies, defective
procurement procedures, incompetent contractors, defective design
and so on contributed significantly to project abandonment. It was
concluded that non-utilization of competent consultants and
contractors, inconsistencies in Government policies, poor location of
infrastructural facilities, defective cash flow and lack of adequate
control in monitoring resources accounts for thousands of abandoned
projects. It was recommended that transparency, fairness,
accountability, honesty and integrity should be the culture while
National Construction Bank is to be established to rejuvenate several
abandoned construction projects.
II. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
This research work intends to investigate factors that lead to
construction projects being abandoned through the following
stated objectives.
1.
To identify the causes of abandonment of building
projects.
2.
To ascertain contributory factors to success and
failure in the implementation of building projects by
government and consultants.
3.
To suggest workable solution to forestall the
problems of abandoned building projects in Nigeria.
This study is significant because elimination or reduction of
the rate of abandonment shall improve provision of housing
for all especially low-income earners, creation of employment
opportunity for professionals in the construction industry,
reduction of waste of fund, human and materials on the part of
the client, as well as, enhanced physical and socio-economic
development of the country amongst others.
Keywords—Project, infrastructure, consultants, abandonment.
I.INTRODUCTION
I
N Nigeria today, the landscape is littered with abandoned
building, road, rail, ports and other infrastructural projects at
all levels of governance from Local Government through the
State Government to the Federal territory. Engineering project
is described to be a scheme or an undertaken designed to
achieve specific objective(s) of the promoter or client [8].
Although [6], viewed construction process, operation and
maintenance as demanding and requires massive investment
whose returns comes very slowly with possible leakage
through lack of cash flow management.
Unfortunately many of these projects in Nigeria are outrightly abandoned even at conception. According to [4], [10]
and [9], “abandonment” refers to structures on which taxes
and mortgages are no longer paid, and for which services are
neither paid for nor provided. They are unoccupied,
vandalized, boarded-up, deteriorated or those which have
unmaintained grounds.
“Abandonment” can mean an owner ceasing to provide
maintenance and operating services to a building, or the loss
III.CAUSES OF ABANDONMENT OF BUILDING PROJECTS.
Abandoned building projects can be described as the project
that has started at an earlier date, but which the construction
work for one reason or the other has stopped and such are not
limited to buildings alone; roads, industrial structures, bridges,
factories, dams, electricity, communication projects and so on
are equally on the list.
Studies by [7], have shown that a good number of building
project initiated with good intentions are abandoned at
different stages of the design and construction process.
Some reasons advanced by [12], [9] for failed construction
projects are: incorrect estimation; lack of available skilled
personnel; inadequate planning; poor risk management;
misunderstanding of the work requirement; poor quality
control by regulatory agencies; corruption and communication
gap among the personnel. Other factors are cost; the developer
and the contractors; inability of clients to engage contractors
or designers capability to do the work; failure on the part of
Olapade Olalusi is with the Department. of Building Technology, Federal
Polytechnic,
Ado
Ekiti,
Nigeria
(+2348034879140
email:olaolaxm@yahoo.com ).
Anthony. Otunola, is with the Department of Building Technology Federal
Polytechnic, Offa Nigeria
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International Conference on Chemical, Civil and Environment engineering (ICCEE'2012) March 24-25, 2012 Dubai
contractors to obtain vital inputs such as materials, manpower
and machines, while [3], sees abandoned projects as a project
in which all activities are totally suspended. Although, [2]’s
opinion deferred a bit, as he observed that a project is never
considered abandoned, rather the project must have been
suspended as a result of the proprietor lacking funds to
continue in the main time.
Inconsistent government policies, lack of accountability,
high level of corruption, incompetent contractors, nonavailability of building materials, lack of utilities or
infrastructural facilities, wrong location and so on has been
advanced as remote causes of abandonment of building project
by [1].
The above reasons invariably leads to waste of resources in
the form of capital, material, human power, promotion of
illegal activities, adverse effect on community, aesthetics and
so on. Hence [13], advocated that construction firms should
inculcate operational, strategic, personal, technological,
marketing and environmental strategies in order cushion the
effect of financial predicament associated with project
abandonment.
Project abandonment is not restricted to developing
countries only; “abandonment is a well-known concept on
construction projects in California [5]. It generally arises in
different situations. One example is when the project's design
is so deficient that the contractor performs a massive amount
of change orders and extra work. “
The socio-economic effect of abandoned projects is
overwhelming when considering the huge amount of money
and resources on the part of the client has been invested in
building project.
Each source was subsequently ranked to show their influence
in project abandonment.
IV.RESEARCH METHOD
TABLE III: INFRASTRUCTURAL FACILITIES INSTALLATION.
TABLE I ROLES OF GOVERNMENT ON PROJECT ABANDONMENt
FACTORS
RESPONSES PERCENTAGE
Non/Delayed payment 90
Corrupt officials
50
Politics
50
Procurement method 40
Prequalification procedure
36%
20%
20%2
16%
20 8%
RANK
1
2
4
5
TABLE II ROLES OF CONSULTANTS ON PROJECT ABANDONMENT
FACTORS
RESPONSES PERCENTAGE
Under pricing of Bill
80
Inadequate Machines & Equipments 60
Diversion of Project Resources
50
Poor Contractors Pre qualification 40
Inadequate manpower
20
RANK
32%
24%
20%
16%
8%
1
2
3
4
5
Tables I and Table II above pin points that both government
and consultants have significant roles to play in stage
managing incidents of construction project abandonment.
Most of the cases scored as source of project abandonment
could have been better handled at prequalification stage of
would be contractors.
Table III showed that non-provision of infrastructural
facilities that would have otherwise enhanced project
implementation prospect was not provided by relevant
authorities.
Such facilities were integral part of the
construction process at conception of construction, during
construction and at completion of the project.
A well structured questionnaire was the main research
instrument used and this was supplemented with oral
interview (in local dialects) granted by the immediate
community of such abandonment.
About 250 questionnaires were directly distributed with the
intention of eliciting a response(s) from contracting firms,
clients, and prospective beneficiary of projects on completion,
towards determining the principal reasons for abandonment of
construction project.
The questions were simple and straightforward, and
language employed was at a level commensurate with the
survey population in order to increase the response level.
The data collated were presented in tabular form and simple
statistical tools were used in order to avail the researcher
opportunities to identify factors responsible for abandonment
of construction projects in Nigeria.
FACTORS
Road Network
Water supply, 75
Electrical supply
Other facilities
RESPONSES PERCENTAGE
95
38%
30%
40
30
RANK
1
2
16%
12%
3
4
TABLE IV: EFFECT OF ABANDONED PROJECTS ON ENVIRONMENT
FACTORS
RESPONSES PERCENTAGE
Low Developments 90
Promotes rough
Landscape 60
24%
Refuse & waste dump 50
Environmental Hazard
& Pollution
30
Criminals hide outs
20
RANK
36%
1
20%
3
2
12%
8%
4
5
Table IV affirmed that abandoned construction sites are
habitat for rodents, reptiles, dump site for refuse thereby
polluting the environment and negates the aesthetics of the
landscape. It may serves as hide outs for hoodlums, robbers
and miscreant people.
V. DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
The research work was based on five main possible
contributory factors whose roles were subsequently examined
and scored within identified source of project abandonment.
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International Conference on Chemical, Civil and Environment engineering (ICCEE'2012) March 24-25, 2012 Dubai
The findings emanating from data analysis above include:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
REFERENCES
[1]. Adeleke S.A (2005): “Abandonment of Federal Government Low-Cost
Housing Estate”. An unpublished HND project submitted to Department
of Building Technology, Federal Polytechnic, Offa.
[2] Akindoyemi J.A (2005) : “Housing in Nigeria National Development”
Lagos: Niser Reprint series No 83, Economics and Social journal
volume xiv, No 3, page 315.
[3] Dawodu M.B (1987): “Housing Strategies in Nigeria” Ibadan: Nigerian
Institute of Town Planner Journal, vol. III page 10.
[4] Greenberg M.R (1900): “The TOADS: A New American Urban
Epidermic” Urban Affairs quarterly vol. 25: page 435-454.
[5] Hicks, Mathew (2008):
“Project Abandonment: Separate Legal
Concept.” An article placed on internet under google search on project
abandonment.
[6] Kimura F. and Maeda M. (2005):
“Transport Infrastructure
Development in Japan and Korea: Drawing Lessons for the Philippines.”
Internet download.
[7] Kolawole O. J. (2006): “A review of Abandoned Projects cases in
Nigeria.” A publication in Builder’s Voice – A publication of National
Association of Building Students – Federal Polytechnic, Offa chapter.
Offa: Metro-print Concept.
[8] Kwakye A.A (1997): “Construction Project Administration in Practice”
Addison Wesley; Longman Ltd page 21.
[9] Makalah, Contoh (2008): “Abandoned Construction project.” A paper
presented at International Conference on Social Sciences and
Humanities.
[10] O’ Flaherty (1993):
“Community –Based Strategies to Counteract
Housing Disinvestments and Abandonment in New York City” New
York: Community Service Society of New York.
[11] Omoniyi M.I (1999) “A critical Analysis of Abandoned Projects in
Nigeria”. An unpublished B.Sc. Project submitted to University of
Lagos, Lagos.
[12] Oyelola W. (2010): “Engineers proffer solutions to project failure.”
Lagos: The Nation. The Nigerian Daily Newspaper. August 10. Pg. 32
[13] Rwelamila P. D. and Lobelo L. (2000): “Factors Associated with
Insolvencies amongst Civil Engineering Construction Firms in South
Africa.” A paper presented at CDC Botswana (2000)
Most construction projects are complex and require
professional team to procure and deliver.
Adequate planning, feasibility, viability and effective
monitoring of financial outlay for construction
projects should be put in place by various agencies
concerned to reduce instances of project
abandonment.
Construction works involving huge capital outlay are
prone to being forced to remain in the shelf for long
as there is simply no cash in sight for people to buy.
The Government agencies through her numerous
inconsistent policies, consultants and selection
procedures are pointers to abandonment of housing
projects that litters the whole country.
Provision of infrastructural facilities before, during
and after the completion of housing project is very
important to forestall abandonment.
The continued neglect of on-going projects of
previous governments by newly elected governments
without considering the importance’s of such project
to National development.
VI. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This paper affirmed that several construction projects which
would have impacted positively on the economic and overall
social development of the nation litters the corners and open
spaces of the country. This significantly affects the housing
area by reducing its beauty in addition to creation of social
problems, spread of disease and threat to the environment.
Many factors accounted for this, ranging from errors in
prequalification
and
procurement
procedure,
to
misappropriation of finance to incompetent consultants.
However, the following recommendations are put forward
to resolve most abandonment problems associated with
construction projects especially in Nigeria:
1.
Only new projects, which can be completed with the
available resources, should be initiated.
2.
The selection processes and consultant should be
characterized by accountability, transparency,
honesty and integrity.
3.
The use of political undertone rather than economic
advantage in sitting of projects should be
discouraged.
4.
Corruption at the level of Government and other
stakeholders in the housing sector should be curbed
through Due process, Economic and Financial Crime
Control (EFCC), Budget Monitoring and Price
Intelligence Unit (BMPIU) and other Crime Control
Agencies.
5.
The need to set up a National Construction Industrial
Bank is overdue.
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