Health and safety management practices in the Nigerian construction industry: A survey of construction firms in South Western Nigeria

Despite the relevance of the construction sector in developing countries, the industry continues to record unacceptable levels of accidents and fatalities. The situation is no different in Nigeria where health and safety (H&S) management has been cited as a major contributor to poor H&S performance. Despite the need for improvement, there remains a dearth of research on the specific H&S management practices and elements of H&S management that need attention. This study thus provides insight into the H&S management practices of contractors in the South West of Nigeria. A questionnaire survey was used to investigate the H&S practices implemented by 115 construction firms. Results from the survey indicate that only a few H&S management practices are commonly implemented by contractors in South Western Nigeria. These practices include: informing employees about hazards on site before work starts; and communicating H&S information to workers through newsletters, leaflets and posters. H&S management practices that are less implemented include: providing H&S supervisors on site; site inductions for workers; rewarding workers for safe work behaviour; assessing the competence of workers and subcontractors; keeping incident records; investigating the causes of incidents, accidents and near misses; providing training programmes for H&S manager(s); and undertaking risk assessment for work packages or operations before they start. Overall, the research shows a gloomy outlook of the implementation of practices in key elements of H&S management (i.e. policy, planning, organising, risk assessment, implementing, performance measurement, and auditing). Contractors, relevant state authorities and industry bodies therefore ought to take collective action to improve H&S management by contractors.