Socio-political factors affecting project planning, management through implementation in Nigeria

This paper has identified projects as the ‘cutting edge” of development and they represent important and tangible symbols of sustainable change and modernization in an economy. The objectives of this paper include to: explore the concept “project” and it’s cycle; identify the socio-political factors that negatively affects project planning through implementation in Nigeria; highlight tools that facilitates effective project planning, management and implementation; and proffer general recommendations for the effective and efficient planning and implementation of projects in Nigeria. This study employed exploratory and qualitative research methods as we did not test any model in a statistical sense. Data was gathered from multiple sources, including formal interviews, public documents, and the internet. However, there is a strong reliance on interviews because rich insights and contextual information was sought from the key informants. The findings revealed that numerous factors which include poor or no project appraisal; top management lapses; defective contract agreements and awards; and gross failure to apply project management techniques; contracts for projects are awarded without adequate project planning which includes the costing and scheduling as well as the method for successful implementation; a mismatch often exists between project design and objectives on the one hand, and the implementation capacity of the agency or organization or ministry on the other; existence of defective control system, and in some cases, the system of monitoring and evaluation may be completely lacking; where projects are awarded on political considerations little or no attention is given to the recommendations of project appraisals, assuming that such specific studies were undertaken; budgetary constraints occur frequently given the short tenure of governments, reordering of priorities or diversion of fund as time progresses have been identified to impact negatively on project planning through execution in Nigeria.