NEWSLETTER #31 - SOCIETY OF AFRICAN EARTH SCIENTISTS

Volume 8, Issue 2

April-June 2019

CONTENTS

Chair's Foreword

The Problem of Africa's Infrastructure Project Failures

Earth Science Events

References and selected reading

Chair’s Foreword*

Welcome to the 31^st newsletter of Society of African Earth Scientists where we visit the topic of the continent's frequent infrastructure project failures and the causes for them.

The Problem of Africa's Infrastructure Project Failures

   A brief investigation into the literature of this subject reveals that making an inventory for Africa is perhaps over ambitious, as it would promise to be vast in extent.

   The work of Nweze [1] on the failure of public infrastructure projects in Nigeria alone reveals , via the work of Oseminan [2], Nigeria to be "the world's junkyard of failed projects" and that there are 400 major failed projects in Nigeria alone as at 2016 costing hundreds of billions of Naira [3]. This number will have escalated. Reasons identified for failure by the study include: corruption, absence of project management expertise, inexperienced staff, absence of relevant skills. Other reasons identified included, incorrect project cost estimates, poor planning.

   Taking into account all projects large and small, Okereke [4] records that 11,886 Federal Government projects were abandoned in Nigeria between 1971 and 2011. This does not include state government projects which would surely make the list of failures vast. Even if other African countries have only a fraction of Nigeria's failures we see that an inventory for Africa is an unrealistic task. Instead one can focus on learning lessons from significant projects which is what Okereke attempts in his paper.

   There are positive examples on the continent of projects that succeed on budget and on time, in South Africa and Ghana. Take for instance the South African infrastructure put in place for the highly successful 2010 FIFA World Cup. 

Dadin Kowa Dam, Gombe State, Nigeria. Completed in 1984 as a hydro-electric dam project, the dam has not delivered a single watt of electric power to the residents of Gombe State to this day

   Ika and St Macary [5] cite project management as the key factor in the failure of African infrastructure projects. Sometimes, these seem to suggest the sheer complexity of project conditions requires a level of project management that is missing.

   Isaac Damoah, in his PhD thesis on this subject uses Ghana as a case study on why projects fail in developing nations [6], and his study is notable for identifying changes in government and lack of continuity as causes for project failure. These have very recently been highlighted in the press in the case of Nigeria being told by a British Court that it must pay $9 billion to a British company for failing to provide the gas for a planned gas processing plant construction in Calabar, South Eastern Nigeria [7]. This represents a catastrophic waste of benefit that might have been enjoyed by Nigerians in the form of electricity that might have been generated from the gas. In this instance there was a lack of continuity between three successive Nigerian administrations that led to the British company claim. Other factors Damoah cites in failure are political interference, poor planning, procurement processes, release of funds, and so on.

   Solutions to combat project failure offered in the literature include obvious advice such as: encouraging governments to prioritise monitoring of their projects [8], or tackle corruption [9]. There is advice to take note of unrealistic pricing at the contract bid stage, and to demand cashflow information from contractors to ensure they can operate for the duration of the project [10].

   Apart from recommending that various professional bodies and government institutions should meet their obligations by better enforcing codes of ethics or practice on their members or clients, Nweze also makes the prudent case for the review of procurement legislation with a view to plugging loopholes for abuse [11].

Earth Science Events

October 6-9, 2019

16th SAGA Biennial Conference and Exhibition "Current Informing the Future"

VISION:The conference, a staple of the geophysical community in Africa, provides a forum for engagement, idea generation and sharing.

VENUE: Durban, South Africa

October 6-10, 2019

17th African Regional Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering "Innovation and Sustainability in Geotechnics for Developing Arica"

VISION: Innovative and sustainable infrastructure is crucial for Africa's economic integration. As such, the vision of improved geotechnics is a positive notion directed at the development of the continent.

VENUE: Cape Town, South Africa 

October 30-31, 2019

World Congress on Irrigation, Water Resources & Drainage Engineering

VISION: 

VENUE: Sydney, Australia

November 18-19, 2019

Crop Science & Agriculture

VISION: 

VENUE: Bali, Indonesia

November 26-27, 2019

Global Summit on Earth Science & Climate Change

VISION: 

VENUE: Lisbon, Portugal

References

1. Nweze, N., Failure of Public Infrastructure Projects in Nigeria: Causes, Effects and Solutions,Texila International Journal of Management,vol.2, issue 2, Dec. 2006. 
2. Osemenan, I., (1987). Project Abandonment. Newswatch Magazine, (1), 15.
3. Kotangora, O.O.,(1993). Project Abandonment in Nigeria. Nigeria Tribune.
4. Okereke, O.C., Causes of failure and abandonment of project deliverables in Africa, PM World Journal, Vol. VI, issue 1 - Jan 2017.
5.  Ika, L and J. Saint-Macaray, Why Do Projects Fail in Africa?, Journal of African Business, September,2014,(15(3),151-155,2014). Link: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/280213472.
6.  Damoah, I.S., An investigation into the causes and effects of project failure in developing countries: Ghana as a case study, PhD Thesis, Liverpool John Moore University, October 2005.
7. Reuters, Judge to allow firm to try to  seize $9 billion Nigerian assets in gas dispute, Aug 2019. https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-nigeria-arbitration/uk-judge-to-allow-firm-to-try-to-seize-9-billion-in-nigerian-assets-in-gas-dispute-idUKKCN1V6154. 
8. Damoah, op. cit.
9. Nweze, op. cit.
10.  Murwira, D., and M. Bekker, Building an infrastructure project performancein the north-west province department of public works and roads, Acta Structilia 2017: 24(2).
11. Nweze, op. cit.

*Board of the Society of African Earth Scientists: Dr Enas Ahmed (Egypt), Osmin Callis (Secretary - Guyana /Nigeria), Mathada Humphrey (South Africa), Dr Chukwunyere Kamalu (Chair - Nigeria), Ndivhuwo Cecilia Mukosi (South Africa), Damola Nadi ( Nigeria).