Identification and Assessment of Key Risk Factors Affecting Public Construction Projects in Nigeria: Stakeholders Perspectives (Published)
Managing risks in construction projects has been recognized as a very important management process in order to achieve the project objectives in terms of time, cost, quality, safety and environmental sustainability. However, until now most research have focused on some aspects of construction risk management rather than using a systematic and holistic approach to identify risks and analyze the likelihood of occurrence, its impacts on stakeholders and determine relative significance index score for each factor identified. This paper aims to identify and assess the key risk factors affecting public construction project delivery from project stakeholder perspectives. The research strategy was a sequential mixed- method approach. It was adopted by means of interview surveys (qualitative approach) followed by a questionnaire (Quantitative approach). Data collection was done through a questionnaire survey self-administered on 40 randomly selected construction industry participants. Out of the 40 questionnaires administered, 33responses fit for analysis were received representing 82.5%. Data were analyzed with the use of parametric and non-parametric statistics. Forty one risk factors were classified into five categories based on their source: Construction, Political, Financial and Economic, design related and environmental risks. The study reveals that these risk factors spread through the whole project life cycle and many risks occur at more than one phase, with the construction stage with risky phase. On the risk categories level all the stakeholders agreed on the finance category as the main factor threatening project completion, and the external category as having the least impact. Furthermore, clients and consultants held different perception on the impact of design category. It is concluded that clients, builders and government bodies must work cooperatively from the feasibility stage onwards to address potential risk in time, and contractors and subcontractors with robust construction and management knowledge must be employed early to make sound preparation for delivery out efficient and quality construction program.
Keywords: Project Management, Risk Assessment, Risk Identification, Risk Impact, Risk Management, Stakeholder Perspectives, and Risk Analysis.