Project management competencies of indigenous contractors in Nigeria

All over the world, governments are talking about reducing spending of capital and recurrent expenditures. Capital expenditures cover cost for major projects such as infrastructure. Moreover, the wealth and worth of a nation is a function of the availability and quality of its infrastructure. It has been noted that indigenous construction firms do not represent a strong source of competition. Consequently, most construction markets in Africa are dominated by expatriates. Governments of most African countries pay huge amount of money to expatriates because of deficiencies in indigenous capacity. This study therefore, identifies and analyses project management competencies required by indigenous construction firms. A quantitative research method was adopted for the study and 72 questionnaires were distributed to indigenous construction firms in Lagos and Abuja, Nigeria. This study revealed cost management, site management, and time management as the most critical project management competencies of indigenous contractors surveyed. The study further revealed that the critical PM competencies of contractors surveyed are hard/technical competencies. The study recommends that indigenous contractors should in addition to hard competencies develop soft/personal competencies which can also facilitate the achievement of project success.