EVALUATION OF LEVEL OF PARTICIPATION OF INDIGENOUS CONTRACTORS IN A TYPICAL STATE IN NIGERIA BETWEEN 2000 AND 2010

Abstract

This work assesses the level of participation of indigenous contractors in developmental construction projects in Nigeria and compares it with that of their foreign counterparts; it also examines the factors responsible for the low level performance by indigenous firms. The work revealed that indigenous contractors were being limited to low developmental projects in terms of contract value while foreign contractors were being awarded contract with higher contract value. Questionnaire was administered on 15 indigenous contractors and 5 foreign contractors but due to their nonchalant attitude, only 12 questionnaires were collected back all together which assisted in providing some basic information such as number of contract awarded, year of award etc. These data were analysed, then bar chart (representing the number of contracts awarded to both indigenous and foreign contractors in different years within the period considered) and the graphs (of cumulative values of contract) were plotted. All these showed that, indigenous contractors were awarded about 86% the total number of contract awarded between 2000 and 2010 while foreign contractors were awarded 14% of the total number of contracts within the period considered. Total contract of about 029.22 billion was awarded within the period considered and of which indigenous contractors were awarded 53.48% of the total value while the foreign contractors were 46.52% of the total value. Comparing the percentage of contract awarded to both local and foreign contract in terms of number of contract awarded, it can be deduced that the difference is remarkably wide in favor of indigenous contractors while the percentage of contract awarded in terms of value to both is somewhat close to each other despite the great difference in the number of contract awarded. It then means that on the average, foreign contractors were being awarded contracts with larger contract values. Coefficient of determination (R2) was used to determine the relationship between contract values of both indigenous and foreign contractors and consequently the regression values point to the fact that the contract value – year characteristics for both foreign and indigenous contractors could only account for 20.5% and 13.6% of the variability respectively.