ASSESSMENT OF CONSTRUCTION FIRMS’ ACCIDENT REPORTING PRACTICES IN ABUJA, NIGERIA

Abstract

Failure to report and address Occupational health and safety incidents results to reoccurrence of such incidences. Despite the government sanctions relating to H&S standards, the occurrence of construction related injuries still persist in Sub-Saharan Africa. Nigeria is among the countries that have high rate of occurrence of construction site accidents and lack of reliable data makes it impossible to know the actual rate of occurrence of accidents in Nigeria. However, there is lack of accident report on construction site by construction firms to the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment and the Ministry’s lack of supervision in relation to accident reports in Nigeria. This study aims to assess construction firms’ accident reporting practices in Abuja, Nigeria with a view of reducing the under-reporting of construction site accidents and enhancing safety practices in the construction firms. The study adopted survey design approach using quantitative data. The research population was the 255 construction firms registered with the Abuja Business Directory. Sample size for the study constituted 90 construction firms selected through purposive sampling technique based on some set criteria. A total number of 71 questionnaires were retrieved from the respondent out of the 90 questionnaires administered to the respondents in the construction firms. Data analysis was done using Relative Important Index (RII). The study revealed that lack of safety commitment by management (RII value of 0.79), no feedback, lack of any H&S regulatory body, lack of time (RII value of 0.78), and lack of experience factor (RII value of 0.77) are the major factors that have high influence on the practice of site accident reporting. Low priority (RII value = 0.82) and poor management commitment to accident recording (RII value = 0.81) are the key factors that have very high influence on the practice towards site recording by construction firms. The performance of all the identified roles of Government in regulating workplace occupational accidents by the required Ministry/Agencies were discovered to be low (RII 0.34 – 0.39). It was also revealed that increase in H&S awareness (RII = 0.93), continuous education and training, institute safety awards to motivate workers, holding daily and weekly H&S briefing session on site, good communication of defined safety goals to workers (RII =0.86) were the most effective strategies for enhancing the practice of construction firms towards accident reporting and record keeping. It was concluded that construction firms practice towards site accident reporting in Abuja is not effective. However, the study recommended that to improve the level of implementation of construction firms practice towards site accident reporting in Abuja, the responsible Ministry/Agencies should set up a mechanism for ensuring that construction firms implement the strategies for enhancing the practice towards accidents reporting and record keeping. This will lead to reduction of under-reporting and under-recording of accidents in the Nigerian construction industry.