E-Procurement Implementation in the Public Construction Sector in Nigeria: A Review

Abstract

E-procurement is seen as one of the essential tools that could be used by government for public procurement in an attempt to reduce the menace of corruption in the procurement processes. Anecdotal evidence has proved that about 75% of corrupt practices in Nigeria are procurement based. This study therefore, intend to explore the barriers to the implementation of e-procurement in the Nigerian construction sector using a desktop research approach. The approach provides the researcher opportunity to obtain basic information from the literature search that can serve as foundation for future research. However, it was revealed that E-procurement implementation has begun in Nigeria, but the lack of empirical research has hindered a clear framework for the adoption as expected and what is required in the public sector goes beyond the present practice. The current practices of e-procurement in the construction is at formative stage, hence more efforts are required for the implementation to yield the desire results. The paper thus concludes that unavailability of services, investment cost, technical know-how, electricity supply, internet diffusion and cyber-security are some of the factors affecting implementation of e-procurement in the country.