A Study of Safety Management in the Nigerian Construction Industry

Abstract

Given the hazardous nature of the construction industry world over, the need for an effective safety management system which aims at forestalling the risks and hazards inherent on site has been reiterated by recent studies and applicable laws. Studies however show that level of effectiveness differs from country to country; industry to industry and from company to company. This study therefore undertakes both qualitative and quantitative investigation into the safety management system of a Nigeria-based construction company with a view of determining how compliant the system is to international standards. Identifying five major components and fifteen elements in the study, both primary and secondary data were collected through personal interviews, structured questionnaire and observation and these were analysed using One Sample t-test at 0.05 level of significance. The results show that though a form safety management system exists in the company, the system is however poorly organised and consequently, it is characterised by ineffectiveness and poor documentation. It is therefore recommended that management gives an urgent attention to the company’s safety management system with an intense interest to standardise its operations and functionality. As a roadmap to achieving this, the paper proposes an integrated “PCR” safety model based on the “TAB” philosophy.