Influence of Cost Control Practices on the Performance of Building Projects in Abuja-FCT, Nigeria

Abstract

The Nigerian Construction Industry (NCI) is facing numerous cost-related challenges that have driven building project costs up by 61.84%. Such challenges include increasing complexity of buildings and the specialist skills required for building design, construction, operation and maintenance. Entirely new problems are thus created for Project Cost Control (PCC), compounded by the use of old tools to manage project cost. There is need for cost control methods that will assist project team members in identifying objectives, choosing cost control priorities and setting up a feedback system. The aim of this study is to assess the influence of cost control practices on the performance of building projects as a means of recommending improvements in the cost control process on construction sites. This research will be limited to the Federal Capital Territory Abuja, which as the capital city of Nigeria, has numerous on-going construction activities. Results of literature review have shown that the quantitative paradigm (which has a positivist epistemological leaning) has been applied most frequently as the research paradigm that can assist in providing answers to the research questions on PCC. This research has found that Cost estimating/budgeting and Budget Monitoring are the most frequently applied PCC practices. Conversely, construction professionals shied away from the use of S-curve for cost/time monitoring. Only 40% of the sample always conducted variance analysis, while 20% admitted to never checking deviations from budget through variance analysis. These results reveal that more work still needs to be done in the area of use of tools for PCC.