An assessment of the influence of contextual environment on health and safety practices in the Nigerian construction industry

This paper presents the results of a survey that appraised the influence of contextual factors on health and safety (H&S) practices in the Nigerian construction industry. This is on the grounds that understanding the environment that construction contractors operate in will help in improving the H&S record of the industry. Some key contextual factors were identified through literature review and questionnaires were distributed to construction practitioners to identify the contextual factors that influence H&S practices in their organisations. The respondents were also asked to score their perceptions on the extent that these factors influence H&S practices in their organisations. The responses of the survey were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The respondents (43.5%) opine that accidents are predestined. The respondents also rank the impact of inadequate H&S regulatory system to be the highest contextual factor that influences H&S practices with relative importance index (RII) of 0.80. This is followed by inadequate governmental attention on H&S with RII of 0.77. Strategies towards improving H&S should be based on contextual issues; yet, this area remains under-examined if not unexamined in Nigeria.