Project management skills are lacking in Nigeria. This is the only way that the large cases of abandoned or failed projects in Nigeria can be explained. For Nigeria to achieve what some people now call vision 20.20.20, latest project management techniques must be used to ensure that resources are promptly and well utilized to achieve the ultimate goal in good time and on reasonable budget.
Definitional Information
According to the Wikipedia Free Online Encyclopedia, project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives.
Concept of Project Management
Projects usually start with goals to be achieved. The nature and scope of the project are clearly defined. Goals must be realistic, measurable, and must have a timeline. Tasks required to achieve the required goals are defined with timeline for each task. Once the initiation stage is over detailed plans for implementing the required tasks are formulated. Then comes the execution, monitoring and control. Finally, the project is closed and decommissioned.
Lack Of Project Management Skills: Main Cause Of Project Failure
In Nigeria, project failure is normal. This is largely because project management skills are lacking in the country. How else do you explain a situation where 13 billion USD was alleged to have been spent in power projects with no result? Power stations were built and commissioned without gas supply to fire them and no grid connections to transmit them where they are needed. The main goal of a power project ought to be to deliver electricity to the final consumer (not just to install them). Building the power station is just a task needed along with other tasks like providing gas supply and grid connection before the project will be said to have been completed.
Hospitals are built without medical personnel or medical supply. Some government officials erroneously think that it is a building and signpost that makes a hospital. In the same token, schools are built without libraries and laboratories; fertilizers are supplied to farmers during the harvest season; commissioned roads last for less than five years, and poor maintenance culture for commissioned projects. Everywhere you look, you will see cases of project failure, which is a direct consequence of lack of project management skills.
Corruption Versus Project Management Skills
One school of thought suggests that the alarming rate of project failures in Nigerian government contracts is largely due to corruption to which we strongly disagree. We believe that lack of project management skills contributes a great deal to project failure in Nigeria. When goals are based on or distorted by tribal sentiments or president’s taste rather than objective goals it is very easy for a project to fail. In addition, when goals are not properly defined as required in project management methodologies, it is hard for project team to appreciate the potential, importance, or relevance of the project leading to low motivation. In such a situation, it is easy for people to divert monies into private pockets as no one sees why the project should be implemented in the first place. It is also easier to justify such moves in such situation.
Significance of Risk Management
A core part of the project management process is risk management. As goals are being identified, potential risks to their being actualized are also identified with ways of mitigating such risks to accomplishing the project goals. Corruption is a risk to any project embarked upon in Nigeria. With project management, project teams can identify how corruption can pose a risk to their actualizing their project goals. With such information and some sincerity, they can find ways of actualizing their project goals even in the face of corruption.
Project Monitoring and Control
A properly monitored project is not likely to fail nor will monies meant for its implementation diverted. It is also important to note that project monitoring can only be effective if it is done while the project is ongoing. For example, Nigeria Independent Power Project (NIPP) probe was late. The honorable members ought to have been monitoring the project when it was being executed not after. Although the members may recover some money for the country from the probe, the fact remains that the projects failed to deliver what it promised within the time limit it promised. All these would have been avoided if monitoring was done during the execution stage of the project.
Importance of Project Management Training and Retraining
The rate of project failures in Nigeria has reached an alarming rate that project management training should be recommended for legislatures, governors, Mr. president, government technocrats, local government chairmen, civil servants, contractors, and anybody who is working in government. Can you remember any target that has been met in Nigeria? The much campaigned provision of 6,000 MW by December 2010 was not met. Government must invest in equipping civil servants with required project management skills that will make them more efficient in handling projects. It is not also out of place to include elements of project management in our curriculum so as to produce Nigerians who will use project management methodologies to ensure that projects are implemented to specification within specified budget and timeline. There is no point proposing budgets of billions of naira yearly and leaving it in the hands of civil servants with little or no project management skills to handle. This is the reason why we see no result from billions of naira yearly budgeted. It is not money that runs projects. Projects are run by the people. There is a saying that, the finest tool still needs someone who knows how to use it. Project management professionals are the right people to deliver successful projects.
Businesses in Nigeria also have their own fair share of project failure. The failure of projects is not only limited to government circles. Most government projects are handled by private practitioners who are either related to government officials or friends to them. Lack of project management skills by private contractors that execute such projects also contributes to project failure. Poor services and service failure are all consequences of poor project management skills in private businesses. Services are rolled out without proper planning or testing leading to poor service delivery. Companies in Nigeria are beginning to appreciate the importance of project management skills. Today, project management certification and experience are now conditions for getting certain kinds of jobs in Nigeria.
Relevance of Project Management Professional Certification
The Project Management Institute’s (PMI)’s Project Management Professional (PMP) ® credential or certification is the most important industry-recognized certification for project managers. Globally recognized and demanded, the PMP® demonstrates that an individual possesses the experience, education and competency to lead and direct projects. This recognition is seen through increased marketability to employers and higher salary according to the PMI Project Management Salary Survey-Seventh Edition. The PMP certification positively impacts the project manager salary and by extension, the living standard of holders of PMP official recognition. Statistics reveals that five of the eight project management advertisements identify PMP certification as highly desirable, advantageous, preferred or a plus. The advertorials that require certification all specify the Project Management Institute’s (PMI) Project Management Professional (PMP) credential.
Project management skills especially team playing (teamwork) is now a quality required for most jobs in Nigeria. Project managers are now in hot demand to handle construction, network rollout, and software development projects.
Versatility of Project Management
Project management skills are no longer restricted to Engineering, Construction, Software Development and Building. Today most business goals are handled via project teams. For example, a marketing campaign or launching a new product now qualifies as a project, which can be handled using project management techniques. This high demand for project management skill has also led to businesses being formed to provide project management training.
CONCLUSION
We have provided list and addresses of some locations where you can obtain project management training that can lead to project management certifications like PMP from the Project Management Institute, PMI. Project Management Professional, PMP is one of the top ten international certifications, with project managers with PMP in hot demand worldwide. Note that project management skills are not important only to job seekers, those planning to run their own businesses may even gain more from project management skills than job seekers may. In Nigeria, it is said that 20% of businesses established fail within one year, while about 80% go under within 5 years. It is believed that lack of project management skills especially while defining goals, planning and execution account for these failures. Therefore, if you are planning to establish a business, some project management skills will not be out of place for you and your employees. It is hoped that the Nigerian government will begin to appreciate the importance of project management skills and engage PM professionals in the execution of projects to guarantee their smooth sail from initiation, planning, monitoring to conclusion stage. As a consequence, the gross domestic income of the Nigerian State will rise and the general living standard of its citizens will be improved.
Written by Engr. Adewumi Adeloye – one of the recipient of our PMtutor Scholarships to attend our PMtutor Premium Training. PMtutor Premium Class combines PMP Preparatory Training with MS Project 2013 workshop. For more on scholarships, click PMtutor Scholarships HERE.
