Pragmatic Assessment of Post Covid-19 Measures on Construction Markets in Nigeria

Abstract

The lockdowns and restrictions imposed due to covid-19 have introduced severe supply chain bottlenecks in the construction process. These have worsened the formulation of demand and supply mechanism, and as such led to huge spike in building materials’ prices. The study assesses the impact of Covid-19 measures on the cost of building materials in the construction industry in South-South region of Nigeria. Data were collected from 269 construction professionals using a quantitative survey. The findings reveal the most important economic factors affecting the cost of building materials as inflation rate, exchange rate, and interest rate. The most significant challenges associated with the rising cost of building materials were also fluctuation in construction cost, increase in final cost of building projects, and risk of project abandonment. It concludes that cost is an important aspect of project execution, therefore effective mechanisms and polices should be put in place to manage these economic factors in order to mitigate or eliminate the rising cost of building materials. The study provides insight to project practitioners and government policy makers on areas to focus on in order to tackle the rising cost of building materials.