Barriers to Adoption of Sustainable Procurement in the Nigerian Public Construction Sector

Abstract

Construction industry tenders are usually awarded to the lowest bidder, with emphasis being placed on the past, on price, quality, and timeliness, with little to no attention paid to the commitment of contractors to sustainability. It is not all construction firms and other stakeholders have an understanding of what sustainable procurement is about in the Nigerian construction industry, resulting in the limited adoption by those that understood it due to the level of risk they claimed it involved. This research examines the barriers to implementing sustainable procurement in the Nigerian construction industry by adopting a survey approach using self-administered questionnaires to obtain data from a purposively sampled group of 116 procurement practitioners in Abuja, Nigeria. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and exploratory factor analysis. Factor analysis was used in categorizing the barriers to sustainable procurement into four: attitude and poor fiscal incentive; financial restrictions; insufficient leadership and knowledge; and regulatory constraints. The result showed that there was no sustainable procurement regulatory framework in the country and that a lack of government commitment, poor economic conditions, and a lack of knowledge were the major barriers to the adoption of sustainable procurement in the Nigerian public construction sector. It is therefore suggested that to make the construction industry’s activities more sustainable, practitioners need to learn more about sustainability, and governments should make policies that encourage and support low tariffs and taxes on sustainable goods and provide government subsidies. The research adds to the ongoing discussion about sustainable procurement practices in developing economies. It does this by drawing on a variety of theoretical perspectives to give a deep understanding of the challenges of sustainability from the public sector’s point of view.