BARRIERS AND DRIVERS OF INNOVATION IN THE NIGERIAN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

The Nigerian construction industry is one of the largest construction markets in Africa. It consists of foreign and indigenous contractors, construction professionals, public and private clients and material manufacturers. However, gross dissatisfaction of clients as a result of poor work quality, cost overruns and time overruns is inhibiting the growth potentials of the industry. Innovation holds great potentials for improvements in the industry. However, there is a need to understand the drivers and barriers to innovation. This study assessed the drivers and barriers to innovation. This study adopted a quantitative research design with questionnaires distributed to construction professionals in consulting and contracting firms located in the Mainland area of Lagos State. Data from the survey were analyzed by descriptive statistics and presented in form of frequencies, charts and mean. The major drivers of innovation from the survey were clients' requirements, developments in ICT and design trends while the main barriers to innovation as perceived by the respondents from the study were lack of understanding of the benefits of innovation, perception that the industry is doing well without innovation and cost of innovation. If the industry must improve its growth potentials then, innovation is not negotiable. However, construction stakeholder will need to address the barriers to innovation identified in this study