Evaluating Construction Project Performance: A Case of Construction SMEs in Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

Performance evaluation is a vital tool for assessing management performance and formulating corporate strategies. The Nigerian construction industry is reported to be very vibrant and one of the largest in Africa. It is made up of 78% indigenous firms and 22% foreign firms. The indigenous firms are predominately small and medium – sized. However, the Nigerian construction industry have been challenged to improve its performance because of reports of performance problems in terms of cost over runs, time over runs, poor quality of work, low productivity among other problems. The aim of the study was to establish the measures used by construction SMEs for evaluating performance. The study employed a case study research design. Five construction SMEs in Lagos, Nigeria were selected as case studies. The findings revealed that construction SMEs do not use any of the established performance measurement frameworks for evaluating performance. The main performance measures used by construction SMEs are cost, time, quality, customer satisfaction, profitability of the project, labour productivity, safety and team work. It was also established from the study that construction SMEs do not use supply chain management and employee satisfaction. It was suggested that construction SMEs should also use supply chain management and employee satisfaction because these measures have been found to impact positively on firms’ performance.