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Impact of Covid-19 on Construction Project Performance in Nigeria and

Mitigating Measures: The Stakeholders' Perception

Conference Paper · September 2020

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 Impact of Covid-19 on Construction Project Performance in Nigeria and Mitigating
Measures: The Stakeholders’ Perception
By

Dan’azumi Yusuf1, Halimat Omuya1, Abdulrashid Dayo1, Jibrin Musa1, and Edo O. Ojoko1*
1
Department of Building Technology, School of Environmental Studies, Federal Polytechnic
Nasarawa
Abstract
The outbreak of the Coronavirus in 2019 (COVID-19) and its declaration as a pandemic by
the World Health Organization (WHO) forced many nations, globally to introduce movement
control order (MCO) on human activities. The ripple effects of the MCO manifested in the
complete lockdown of borders and the shutdown of many economic activities in diverse sectors.
The construction industry, although a focal national economic driver and other congruent
industries did not escape the lockdown. As such, ongoing projects were postponed and much
needed infrastructural proposals were put on hold. The study focuses on identifying the impact
of the pandemic on project performance and evaluating measures to mitigating the effects of
such crises to proffer solutions. Employing the questionnaire approach, divided into sections
(A-demographic, B-Impacts, and C-Measures), 270 copies were administered on three
categories of stakeholders; Consultants; Contractors, and Suppliers, and 243 responded, while
229 (94.24%) was validated due to missing values. The application of relative importance
index (RII) established time and cost overruns, health and safety, material shortage, labour
loses and quality as having top impacts, while the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE),
usage of industrialised building system (IBS), interval temperature check, constant hand wash
and sanitizer usage, face mask usage, and social distancing practice were the measures
significantly curtail the spread of Covid-19.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, Construction Project Performance Mitigating Measures,

Stakeholders’ Perception, and Nigeria

1.0 Introduction

Like in other nations, the Nigerian construction industry engages in a wide range of loosely
integrated organizations that collectively construct, alter and repair a wide range of different
buildings and civil engineering projects (Akanni et al., 2014). In most nations, the industry
contributes significantly to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). For instance, in Nigeria, in the
first quarter of 2016, the construction industry contributed about 4.13% to the total GDP
(National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, 2016). Both in the areas of job creation and socio-
economic development of the nation globally, the industry has fared well. For decades,
although, stakeholders have called to question the performance of construction projects in
Nigeria, however, the advent of coronavirus in 2019 (COVID-19), and the consequent activity
lockdown have further exacerbated the crisis. In a major review of project performance, Gamil
and Alhagar (2020) established that pandemic can produce a profound effect on the planned
progress of construction projects.
Hui et al., (2020) identified the COVID-19 as an infection with a severe acute respiratory
syndrome that the World Health Organization (WHO, 2020) called a pandemic. Its first
appearance was in Wuhan city of China in 2019 and it has since spread globally with its
attendant severe consequences. As such, market focus is shifted towards the safety of the
people, necessities of life, including food and medical facilities. Except for essential services,
vital projects and medical sectors, all other business activities have been shut down.
Worldwide, businesses have been embraced the concept of Work-From-Home (WFH) or
remotely from project sources. While sectors with high software component like the ICT have
adjusted fairly, others like the construction industry that are heavy labour dependent, especially
in a developing nation like Nigeria (Ojoko, et al., 2018) are facing the direct impacts of Covid-
19. Gamil and Alhagar (2020) forecast the likelihood of many countries wit inadequate project
management tools experiencing an economic downturn and eventually slipping into recession.

2.0 Literature Review

COVID-19 is a recent phenomenon with severe impacts on the industrial sector and world
economy but limited in studies. Due to the limited data and the uncertainty of the current
situation, the reviews are still few and not yet adequate. Nicola et al., (2020) opined that the
MCO imposed by most nations caused many industries to lockdown resulting in the absence
of essential services, job losses, and lack of medical supplies with consequent adverse socio-
economic impact on stakeholders. Fernandes, (2020) in a study of the economic impact of the
pandemic outbreak on the economy of 30 countries, observed that the gross domestic product
(GDP) is likely to be hit by 3-6% or might fall to 15% in some countries. According to Ivanov,
(2020), some of the loss supply chains that negatively impacted project performance may be
lost forever or may take a longer time to recover. Harari (2020) viewed the COVID-19
pandemic as the major crisis of this generation that required planned new strategies to avoid
the travail of humankind. In the Indian real estate sector, Venkitachalam, (2020) observed that
portfolios have been severely affected and declination has been considerably recorded. For
engineering and construction projects, authors (Price Waterhouse Coopers, 2020; Gamil and
Alhagar, 2020; Kahn Lange and Wiczer, 2020; Amri and Marey-Pérez, 2020) identified time
and cost overruns, poor health and safety, Interruptions in the supply of materials and
equipment, material shortage, reduced labourers' productivity due to increased security
measures, labour loses and poor-quality output as some of the likely impacts of the pandemic.
There is no doubt that these are challenges for the performance of construction projects. Gamil
and Alhagar (2020) emphasized that due to the severely curtailed economic activities caused
by COVID-19 some of the project performance challenges in many developing countries like
Nigeria manifest even before a project commences. Thus, the best plan under such a situation
is for the stakeholders to evolve means of sustaining the economy by containing the virus.

According to Occupation Safety and Health Administration (OSHA, 2020), in the event of a
pandemic outbreak in healthcare settings, transmission in the workplace is not limited from
patients to workers, but also among co-workers and between members of the general public
and workers in other types of workplaces. As such, to preserve as many lives as possible, it
becomes essential to keep the healthcare system functioning and to deliver the best care
possible United States Center for Disease Control (CDC, 2007). CDC (2007) offered three
primary strategies for combating a pandemic with a single goal of saving lives. While the first
two centres on vaccination (pharmaceutical intervention-NI), the third focuses on non-
pharmaceutical intervention-NPI). The NPI approach helps to reduce transmission through
contact reducing between sick persons and uninfected persons, thus reducing the number of
infected persons. In general, reducing the number of infected persons lessens the need for
healthcare services and minimizes the impact of a pandemic on the economy and society (CDC,
2007). To mitigate the spread of the COVID-19, along with other measures a Human and
Occupational Resource Management Plan (including Code of Conduct) was initiated by The
World Bank. COVID-19 Emergency Pandemic Preparedness and Response Project (P173757;
2020). These include the practice of social distancing, limited number in a location, use of
personal protective equipment (PPE), face mask, engagement of site-specific COVID-19
Supervisor, stagger trade, hygienic practices.
With no exception, the performance of the construction projects industry has been adversely
affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, there are limited studies exclusively detailing
the impact of the pandemic and measures for mitigating the spread of the pandemic. reported
in the Nigerian construction industry, hence this study is aimed at identifying and evaluating
the measures the stakeholders are employing to mitigate its spread. to discover the effects.

3.0 Methodology
This study was carried out in Nasarawa State, Nigeria, by employing a survey method.
Nasarawa State is one of the 36 states of Nigeria. Its proximity to Abuja the Federal Capital
Territory of Nigeria assisted in making it one of the most urbanized states in Nigeria with a
large presence of construction projects. A three-section questionnaire was developed for the
data instrument. The first section was to clarify information on the stakeholders’ background,
the second section investigated the impact of Covid-19 on project performance, while the third
section evaluated the degree to which mitigating measures were embraced by the stakeholders.
To eliminate ambiguity, only the consultants, contractors, and manufacturers /suppliers at
managerial cadre with the inclination for government projects participated in this study. To
ensure easy interpretation, the five-point Likert scale was employed (Ekanayake and Ofori,
2004). The Likert scale of 1-5 point was adopted, where 1-represents-least significant, 2-less
significant, 3-significant, 4-more significant and 5-most significant. Based on the snowballing
technique, 270 copies of questionnaire were administered on the three categories of
stakeholders; Consultants; Contractors, and Suppliers. While 243 stakeholders responded, 229
(94.24%) was validated due to missing values, incomplete filling and cancellation. This
response rate meets the threshold in the construction management field based on subjects to an
item of 20-30 % acceptable range (Akintoye, 2000).

3.1 Data Analysis and Results

The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 26 was employed for the data
analysis. In determining the internal consistency test of the data, the Cronbach coefficient alpha
was 0.874 which meets the threshold of 0.7 (Zhai t al., 2014). From similar studies, this study
engaged three types of analysis (Chan et al. 2004; Yang et al., 2012). While the Contractors made
up the most respondents (45.5%), Manufacturer/suppliers constitute 32% and the Consultants
constitute the least (22.5%) of all the respondents. Over 75% of the respondents are within the
31-50years age bracket; which forms active age bracket for optimum performance in the
construction industry (Ojoko, 2018). More than 70% of the respondents have over 15years
experience in the construction project delivery. Moreso, over 60% of the respondents work in
both building and civil engineering firms, which adds further validity to this study.
In terms of educational level, 9.2% has a diploma, 29.7% with BSc and 61.1% has postgraduate
qualification wish shows that in the area under study, over 90% are at least of a graduate level.
Which implies that the respondents can read and understand the content of the instrument.
Based on the stakeholders’ response, the frequency of the impact of COVID-19 on construction
project performance in Nigeria as obtained from the cross-tabulated data and relative
importance index (RII) is hereby presented in Table 1.

RII offers the aggregate impact and mitigating effect of the variables on project performance.
In evaluating the RII, all the numerical scores for the variables were transformed in SPSS to
access their relative rankings (Love and Irani, 2004). Thus, one of the purposes of using the
RII and its use is to give a rank for each variable in a particular part in the research instrument.
According to Ojoko et al., (2018), the RII can be obtained from the formula:
RII=ΣW/(A∗N), …………………………………………………………………. Eqn 1
RII= 1(n1) +2(n2) +3(n3) +4(n4) +5(n5) /5(n1+n2+n3+n4+n5) ………………… Eqn 2
Where:
W: is the assigned weight by respondents for each Variable (ranging from 1 to5);
A: Represents the highest weight (that equals 5);
N: Represents the total number of respondents.

Some out of the thirty COVID-19 impacting variables identified from literature include; labour
shortage, contractual disruptions, cost and time overruns, poor quality, health and safety,
supply shortage, the uncertainty of survival, impact on research and technology, socioeconomic
impact. disruptions to supply chain, financial impact, and suspension of projects. Some out of
the twelve COVID-19 mitigating variables identified from the literature include: Stay at home
for the sick, Wash station, PPE, Social distancing, Daily attendance log for staff and visitors,
Use a face mask, fumigation, decongesting choke areas, employment of supervisor and stager
operations. However, for space and ease of comprehension, all the variables have been coded.
The covid-19 induced impacting variables that were thirty identified in the from the literature
have been coded C1-30 (table 1), while the 12 mitigating variables were coded M1-12 (Table
2).
Table 1 avails us an understanding of each employees’ perception of the variables relative to
project performance.
Table 1: The Frequencies of Covid-19 impact on construction project performance in Nigeria.
Variable Consultants Contractors Suppliers Overall
RII Rank RII Rank RII Rank RII Rank
C28 0.814 2 0.853 1 0.842 2 0.842 1
C17 0.857 1 0.847 2 0.836 3 0.840 2
C16 0.757 8 0.821 5 0.843 1 0.834 3
C19 0.814 3 0.826 4 0.832 4 0.830 4
C25 0.800 5 0.832 3 0.811 6 0.814 5
C5 0.800 4 0.795 10 0.815 5 0.810 6
C20 0.800 7 0.816 7 0.809 7 0.810 7
C24 0.729 12 0.821 6 0.809 7 0.806 8
C18 0.757 9 0.800 8 0.803 9 0.800 9
C11 0.800 6 0.800 9 0.790 10 0.796 10
C23 0.757 10 0.795 11 0.776 11 0.778 11
C27 0.700 14 0.795 12 0.771 12 0.770 12
C10 0.729 11 0.774 15 0.768 13 0.767 13
C15 0.700 16 0.789 13 0.759 14 0.761 14
C26 0.700 15 0.758 17 0.758 15 0.755 15
C30 0.657 21 0.784 14 0.754 16 0.753 16
C12 0.686 18 0.774 16 0.744 17 0.745 17
C29 0.700 17 0.753 18 0.741 19 0.741 18
C22 0.686 19 0.732 20 0.744 18 0.738 19
C13 0.714 13 0.747 19 0.738 20 0.738 20
C14 0.614 23 0.732 21 0.732 21 0.725 21
C7 0.500 26 0.447 28 0.695 22 0.693 22
C21 0,671 20 0.689 22 0.695 22 0.693 23
C4 0.629 22 0.689 22 0.678 24 0.677 24
C8 0.600 24 0.679 24 0.651 25 0.652 25
C1 0.557 25 0.658 25 0.634 26 0.633 26
C9 0.500 27 0.447 28 0.467 27 0.466 27
C6 0.457 28 0.489 26 0.454 28 0.460 28
C3 0.457 29 0.489 27 0.454 29 0.460 29
C2 0.414 30 0.395 30 0.394 30 0.396 30

It can be inferred from the table above that exist a measure of similarities between the responses
of the consultants, contractors, and the suppliers as each perceived COVID-19 to impact on
project performance in Nigeria. This aligns with the argument of some authors (Kog & Loh,
2012; Mao et al., 2015; Gan et al., 2017) that aside from the issues of professional training,
years of experience and the employees’ role very often issue of pandemic create a similar level
of fear in stakeholders’ heart. However, it can be gleaned from Table 1 that while the affinity
in the ranking of the variables between those of the consultants and the supervisors share
similar perception on most of the variables than those of the suppliers with either. The
noticeable departure of the supplier’s response could be the likelihood of limited interactions
suppliers share with other stakeholders during project delivery.
As expressed in the table, nine out of the ten (10) variables, as perceived by the Consultant as
highly impacting on project delivery, are observed to be within the leading ten (10) overall
ranked variables. Similarly, on the part of the contractor, it was observed that all the variables
perceived as leading by the employees are contained in the leading overall ten (10). Although,
the variable Q5 is ranked 6th in the overall, however, the contractor perceived it as the 10th
influencing variable. In comparing the perception of the Suppliers with the overall ranking, it
was observed that there exists a higher affinity in the leading ten (10) variables. Similarly,
Table 2 reveals the stakeholders’ perception of the mitigating variables by using the cross-
tabulation approach.
Table 2: The Frequencies of variables mitigating on Covid-19 impact on construction project
performance in Nigeria
Variable Consultants Contractors Suppliers’
RII Rank RII Rank RII Rank
M12 0.800 6 0.769 8 0.861 3
M9 0.805 4 0.827 4 0.872 1
M3 0.727 11 0.798 6 0.803 7
M5 0.807 3 0.823 5 0.869 2
M7 0.788 8 0.764 10 0.854 5
M6 0.799 7 0.797 7 0.781 10
M1 0.802 5 0.831 3 0.767 11
M4 0.819 1 0.833 2 0.852 6
M10 0.777 9 0.750 12 0.766 12
M8 0.813 2 0.834 1 0.850 7
M11 0.775 10 0.766 9 0.785 9
M2 0.703 12 0.751 11 0.789 8

Table 2 avails us an understanding of each stakeholders’ perception of the mitigating variables

relative to project delivery. It can be discerned from Table 2 that the consultant, contractor and
suppliers do not share similar perception on most of the variables; there are noticeable
departures in that of the others. The obvious departure in the ranking by the various
stakeholders signify a non-agreement in their perception as per the importance of the mitigating
variables. This aligns with the argument of some authors (Kog & Loh, 2012; Mao et al., 2015;
Gan et al., 2017) that aside from the issues of professional training, years of experience and
the stakeholders’ role in project delivery very often influence how he perceives risk.
 Conclusion

Construction projects and other infrastructural physical development in Nasarawa state that
could improve the wellbeing of the citizenry are currently on hold because of the COVID-19
pandemic. While various factors have been identified as impacting on project delivery due to
the pandemic, stakeholders initially identified thirty of such as important. From this study, the
participants while in agreement with the listed variables, however, perceived their impacts
variously. The overall ranking shows that the consultants and contractors are more in
agreement in their perception as compared to the suppliers. In all, there exists pact on the
leading ten (10) various impacting on project delivery due to the advent of COVID-19.
However, as per the twelve mitigating variables identified, while statistically, they were
accepted by all stakeholders, there exists no uniformity in agreement as per there relative
importance. This could be attributed to the risk perception of the stakeholder’s role in project
delivery. The authors suggest a need for more awareness creation that will expose the
stakeholders to challenges of the pandemic. Also, we recommend the integration and
enforcement of health and safety guidelines in everyday activities of building development
operations. The major measures concern the adoption of a stay-at-home policy for the sick
ones, usage of PPE like the face mask, hand glove, wash stations at strategic locations and
constant use of hand sanitizers. Besides, programmed fumigation and usage of a daily
attendance log for all staff and visitors in line with the COVID-19 health and safety measures
must be enforced. such as maintaining. More importantly, embrace of building techniques like
the industrialised building method that discourages mass operatives; thus, eliminating choke
point/high-risk areas at sites needs be embraced.

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