Overview Facility Management Financing in the Construction Industry in Accra, Ghana

Residential property finance in Ghana has followed a conventional pattern in terms of the continuing preponderance of the informal sector and the intervention of government to attempt to build formal mortgage markets. What is perhaps special is that the government of Ghana attempted the development of a secondary market in mortgage lending without a strong primary market on which to build.  However in doing so they did not address many of the fundamentals on which any type of mortgage market must be based - those of secure and transparent title and a clearly defined regulatory system; a reasonably responsive supply of formal housing; and the development of mortgage instruments which address the issues of affordability.  The macro-economic circumstances - notably the very high rate of inflation - thus made it impossible to build a market without special instruments to address the front loading problems associated with high first year payments. This paper assesses the reasons why the government's secondary market initiative failed and the way that the formal primary mortgage market has developed in the face of this failure.  In particular it examines the facility Management market of Ghana with the European Community One. Keywords: Facility; Management; Market; Construction Industry; Ghan

Evaluating the Success Factors of Partnering in the Building Construction Industry in Accra Metropolis, Ghana

Partnering is a new methodology in dealing with disputes or a disputes prevention mechanism, among parties to a public / private process such as construction or building industry. Its intent is to avoid or solve disputes so they do not interrupt unnecessarily with the project that brought the parties together in the first place.  Partnering can lead to construction projects being delivered quickly, efficiently and cost effectively. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of partnering in the Building Construction Industry.  The objectives are to identify the success factors of partnering; to identify the critical factors of partnering and to identify whether risk in a partnering relationship is distributed fairly between the parties. Twenty companies were randomly selected. However, fifteen companies/ stakeholders responded, representing 75% respond rate. Five questionnaires each were administered to the fifteen construction companies. Out of the ten success factors identified in the findings, Increased opportunity for innovation and value engineering; Improved project outcomes in terms of cost, time and quality; Lower administrative and legal costs; Achieving better buildability; Establishing a more dynamic organizational structure and clear lines of communication; Developing an environment for a long-team profitability with mean score 4.55; 4.17; 3.83; 3.77; 3.60; 3.40 respectively, were identified as critical success factors. Keyword: Partnering; Time; Quality; Cost; Litigatio

The Management of Health and Safety of Construction Sites in Accra

The study into the Management Health & Safety effective implementation on sites stems out of the fact that accidents and deaths are becoming very endemic and this makes the construction process expensive to the detriment of both the clients and contractors. The aim is to investigate into the management of Health and safety on the construction sites. The objectives are to identify the major kinds of injury on construction site; to identify some of the management health and safety principles used by contractors and to determine the relationship of management of health and safety principles improves project time delivery. In view of this, a review of available relevant literature was carried out to have theoretical and first hand information on the subject matter after which questionnaire were distributed, field survey carried out and practicability of the literature in relation to the companies concerned.  Convenience sampling technique was adopted to select three (3) companies out of which two (2) responded in Greater Accra Region-Ghana to be representative of both medium and large-scale contractors. The research was able to establish five kinds of injury on construction sites and these are Falling; Being struck by a falling/moving object; Collapse; Being hit by a moving vehicle and Electricity. The research was able to conclude that that most contractors under price their bill when it comes to safety issues, and this goes a long way to affect their project time delivery. Keywords: Management; Health, Safety; Construction; Sit

The Impact of Innovation of the Construction Industry in Ghana

The essence of this paper therefore, is to bring out the impact of innovation of the Construction industry in Ghana and also to establish tangible and intangible benefits associated with innovation.  Analysis of the relevant literature indicates the impact and the problem of slow adaptation of innovation and new ways of working within the construction industry is a great concern to most organization that operates within and outside the industry. To bridge this conservatism attitude of innovation in the industry, it is fundamental to explore the impact and for that matter the benefits of innovation within the industry. This paper however, seeks to embark on this investigation on the impact of innovation and to bring to light its related benefits and how these would be achieved. Data were collected among construction professionals (Consultants) and Contractors via questionnaires supported by informal interviews. Analysis of the data was done using simple percentage method and the findings were represented in the form of pie-chart and bar-chart using micro-soft excel programme. The study established that innovation within an industry brings about increased in economic growth and profitability. The study also revealed that ease of working at a lower cost with much precision is assured when there is innovation Recommendation of effective coordination between Consultants and Contractors must exist to facilitate innovation beginning from research and development set-up within the firms. Keywords: Impact; innovation; Construction; industry; Ghan

A model for the management of health and safety practices on Ghanaian sites

Abstract: Construction Health and Safety management is an issue of great concern to the Ghanaian economy. In spite of its contribution to the economy, the Ghanaian construction industry has poor safety record. The research aims at establishing a model for the management of Health and Safety practices on Ghanaian construction sites. The main objectives of the study is to establish the status of health and safety management in the construction industry, the role of clients, designers and the top management of contractors in H&S management, to establish the current trends in H&S management, to establish the role and impact of construction clients and their potential construction and influence on project H & S management, to develop a model for H & S management improvement in the Ghanaian Construction industry and to validate the conceptualized model for H&S management improvement by comparing the new model with existing models. Data will be collected using Delphi and field questionnaire survey. Structural equation modeling and Nvivo will be used to analyse the field questionnaire and Delphi surveys respectively. The study is ongoing Phd study and so no findings are available at this stage