The Performance of Traditional contract procurement on Housing projects in Nigeria.

The traditional contract procurement has been widely criticized as an ineffective procurement method because it often involves time and cost overrun on construction projects. Yet the method is still being widely used in Nigeria most especially for the procurement of housing projects. It is suspected that this procurement method may not be ineffective in all cost categories of housing projects. Therefore time and cost performances of the procurement method on 57 housing projects of varying cost categories initiated by the Nigerian government between 1993 and 1999 were studied. The category of one to five million naira (US$1.00 ≈ 92 Nigerian Naira in 1999) showed the least time overrun of 18.98% while the highest time overrun of 99.64 % was shown in the five to ten million naira. The over ten million naira category had the least cost overrun of 9.13% while the highest cost overrun of 34.55 % was shown in the less than one million naira. The one to five million naira cost category exhibited weak correlation between time and cost overruns but the five million naira and above categories showed strong correlation. It was concluded that one to five million naira cost category is quite suitable for traditional contract procurement on housing projects in Nigeria

Determining the Performance of Procurement Methods against Selection Criteria using Outranking - Satisfying Methodology

The need to develop a decision support system to determine the most appropriate procurement route for a building project led to the development of various theoretical models. One of the foremost techniques was the multi-attribute utility approach (MAUA). In this technique, the arithmetic mean (averaging) method was used to fix the utility factors relating the procurement routes to each criterion. In this paper, the averaging method was subjected to further analysis using the outranking-satisfying technique to determine the correctness of the results derived from the averaging method used to fix the utility factors in the use of MAUA. The results showed that there is a significant difference between the rank-order of procurement methods against selection criteria by averaging and outranking-satisfying techniques. The use of outranking-satisfying analysis revealed that, the use of arithmetic mean to determine the utility factors can lead to inappropriate association of procurement routes with differing utility coefficients

Population dynamics of Mormyrus rume (Valenciennes, 1847; Osteoglossiformes; Mormyridae) Of Ikere-Gorge, Iseyin, Oyo State, Nigeria

The structure of a fish population is determined by the equilibrium between growth, recruitment and total mortality. But, there is paucity of information on the growth and mortality of Mormyrus rume in Nigeria. Therefore this study is needful to determine its population parameters, with a view of evolving management strategies for its sustainable exploitation. Estimates of population parameters of Mormyrus rume were obtained from length-frequency data of 836 individuals collected monthly for a period of 24 months from January 2017 to December 2018. The estimated growth parameters were: asymptotic length (L∞) was 100.8cm; growth coefficient (K) was 0.62/year; growth performance (Ɵ) was 3.8; length at maturity (Lm) was 52.57cm; reproductive load (Lm/L∞) was 0.52 and optimum length (Lopt) was 65.10cm. Likewise, natural, fishing and total mortalities were 0.93, 1.46 and 2.39 respectively. The values of exploitation rate (0.61) and ratio of total mortality and growth coefficient (3.85) showed that Mormyrus rume is most exploited in Ikere-gorge. Therefore, appropriate fishing regulations should be enforced to regulate fishing gears and mesh size that will fish Mormyrus rume at sustainable level. Keywords: Recruitment, mortality, growth, exploitation, lengt

Urban Fabric and Trip Pattern of Ibadan Residents, Nigeria

This paper assessed how the city fabric influences the travel behaviour pattern of Ibadan residents. A total of 271 respondents were sampled. Findings from the chi- square test showed that a significant difference exist in the number of trips made daily by respondents across the different residential neighbourhoods (X2=29.00, P = 0.01 <0.05). Most respondents from two suburban neighbourhoods (Apete and Ologuneru) surveyed in the study made between 2 to 4 trips or more before getting to their places of work/business. In a similar vein, ANOVA test results indicated a variation in daily average trip distance made by respondents across the different residential neighbourhoods in the city (F=2.09, P = 0.04 <0.05). Majority of the respondents spent between 21-30minutes on traffic daily while going or coming back from work/business. Some of the measures proposed by the paper that would help in enhancing movement of people within the city especially those living at the suburban areas include: encouraging inter-modal link, reassessment of the existing urban planning laws and expansion of the road networks within the city. Keywords: Trip pattern, Traffic congestion, Suburban, urban fabric, Ibada

Profiling the Environmental Management Practices on Construction Sites in Lagos State, Nigeria

Construction site activities are associated with negative impacts on the environment and construction companies are expected to mitigate these impacts using environmental management practices (EMP) on their sites based on ISO 14001 requirements .However in Nigeria where the construction industry is not regulated, it is imperative to explore if the contractors are ISO 14001 compliant. A systematic random sampling was used to select one hundred and twenty (120) site managers in Lagos state of Nigeria; out of which seventy-three (73) responded. The results of the analysis showed that, none of the construction managers were aware of their companies’ environmental management policy, but the three most prevalent environmental management practices (EMP) on construction sites were displaying of posters, inspection by management, planning and organizing site environment in rank order. It was also discovered that, the type of project, availability of a clear company policy on EMP and management attitude towards environmental issues were the most prevalent influential factors that necessitated the adoption of a particular EMP on site. The study therefore recommended that construction companies should be mandated to develop an environmental management plan for project site. Keywords: Construction, environmental management practice, Nigeri

Impact of Thrift and Loan Associations in Reducing Poverty for Economic Development of Farmers in Lafia Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, Nigeria

In rural areas, low level people hardly ever get access to credit facilities and farm inputs due to their socio economic status, thus the poverty level of people in rural areas continue to worsen. This study was carried out to examine the impact of thrift and loan associations in reducing poverty for economic development of farmers in Lafia Local Government Area of Nasarawa State. A multi-stage sampling technique was used in selecting the respondents. Data were collected through questionnaire and interview schedule. Tools for analyses were descriptive statistics and multiple regressions. Findings revealed that household size, farm income, non-farm income, educational level and interest rate charged on credit were the significant factors that influenced the level of participation of members in thrift and loan associations. The study concludes that Micro-lending through thrift and loans associations has been considered as the solution for poverty reduction. It was therefore recommended that thrift and loan association should be supported to grow their wealth sufficiently through accumulation of enough  institutional  capital  to  finance funded  assets,  provide  cushion  to  absorb  losses, link up farmers with sources of input production thereby reducing poverty among members. Keywords: impact, thrift and loans, association, poverty, economic, developmen

An Evaluation of Traditional Contract Method on Residential Building Projects

In order of priority of basic human needs, housing is recognized worldwide as second ·to food and comes before clothing. This high priority coupled with United Nations aggressive campaign for adequate shelter for all citizenry has forced governments of nations to embark on direct construction of housing units for their people. In Nigeria, government direct intervention in housing delivery to the masses took the form of traditional contract procurement. This paper reports the result of a survey carried out to know the performance of this procurement method in relation to time and cost overrun. Valid data from fifty-seven residential projects ranging from one million to one hundred million Naira in itiated by government between 1993 and 1999 couple with questionnaires administered on Clients, consultants and contractors were used for the analysis was to establish whether there is significant difference between the mean time overruns and the mean cost overruns of traditional contract on residential projects of different cost categories. The result showed that the traditional contract performs better in terms of time overruns (18.98%) when used to procure residential building projects of five million Naira and below. However the procurement method performs better in terms of cost overrun(9.13%) for projects above ten million Naira. Attempts were also made to know if a relationship exists between time and cost in each category

Impact of Thrift and Loan Associations in Reducing Poverty for Economic Development of Farmers in Lafia Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, Nigeria

In rural areas, low level people hardly ever get access to credit facilities and farm inputs due to their socio economic status, thus the poverty level of people in rural areas continue to worsen. This study was carried out to examine the impact of thrift and loan associations in reducing poverty for economic development of farmers in Lafia Local Government Area of Nasarawa State. A multi-stage sampling technique was used in selecting the respondents. Data were collected through questionnaire and interview schedule. Tools for analyses were descriptive statistics and multiple regressions. Findings revealed that household size, farm income, non-farm income, educational level and interest rate charged on credit were the significant factors that influenced the level of participation of members in thrift and loan associations. The study concludes that Micro-lending through thrift and loans associations has been considered as the solution for poverty reduction. It was therefore recommended that thrift and loan association should be supported to grow their wealth sufficiently through accumulation of enough  institutional  capital  to  finance funded  assets,  provide  cushion  to  absorb  losses, link up farmers with sources of input production thereby reducing poverty among members. Keywords: impact, thrift and loans, association, poverty, economic, developmen

Cultural Practices and Prevalence of HIV/AIDS among Nigerian Women: A Case Study of Lafia, Nigeria

One of the greatest problems in the world today is the HIV/AIDS pandemic which has and is ravaging families and communities. Women and children constitute the largest percentage of the number of victims recorded. The objective of the research is set to expose the cultural practices that enhance the prevalence of HIV/AIDS on Nigerian women. The survey method was employed using questionnaires as data gathering instrument to acquire relevant information related to the research topic. The sampling procedure used was the purposive random sampling, 200 female respondents were selected for the study. Research findings reveals that cultural practices like polygyny and the culture of male dominance are indeed the leading cause of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria. Cultural practices such as polygyny, levirate marriage, female genital mutilation, child marriage, amongst other practices have made women more susceptible to the HIV infection compared to men. The researchers therefore recommend that women should be empowered through education and also enlightened on their sexual reproductive rights. Keywords: Cultural practices, polygyny, Women, prevalence, HI

Forecasting as a Pinnacle for Rural Revitalization: Case Study of Mesowalai Homestay, Sabah State, Malaysia

The rapid increase in the capacity of computers to store information has generated an abundance of data across all types of industries in the world.  Tourism forecast generates thousands of series of data nearly every time when considering domestic travel, as well as numerous levels of disaggregation such as geographical regions, purpose of travel and so on. Hence, accurate forecasting techniques have become a necessity in Mesowalai Homestay due to the influx of tourists to the area & its impact on socio- economic development so as to take advantage of such a plethora of information. Many studies have used different forecasting techniques to forecast tourist arrival; therefore this study adopts the regression approach to forecast tourist arrivals in Mesowalai homestay. The data comprises of tourist arrival from the year 2000 to 2010. For the modeling, year 2000 to 2006 was used for building up the tourist arrival model and year 2006 to 2010 was used to compare the forecast. The result shows that the peak tourist arrivals to Mesowalai homestay is put at 1123.55 annually while tourist growth increases by 233.2 annually. Keywords: Volunteer tourism, Forecast, Regression Approach, Tourist Arrival, Homesta