Construction Challenge | Share Your Experience

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It’s an interesting time for the construction industry in Nigeria. The industry has been facing a lot of challenges lately.

Rising material and labor costs, labor scarcity, increased competition and shrinking profit margins, unfavorable rules and regulations are some of the challenges construction projects face.

In the light of the foregoing, we would like you to share with us your day-to-day challenges at your project site and you were able to handle them.

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I shoot.

Last weekend, I was asked by a client to assist in getting some building materials (sand, granite, cement) to his location somewhere in Lagos.

I spoke with my supplier who’s around the area and he agreed to supply only sand and granite. This mean we have to source cement elsewhere.

I tried talking to the driver to assist in buying the cement while going to deliver the sand and granite but he couldn’t assist. So I decided to talk to one of my delivery guy around Berger, Lagos to help handle the logistics of delivering the cement to site.

Shockingly, till moment I’ve not heard anything solid from the delivery guy. The cement was not delivered and fund not refunded. Now I had to cough out some money as a refund for the cement because the client had to source from elsewhere to get his job done.

It was a bitter experience. Having to pay for what you never plan for but lessons learnt.

Take Ownership of problems. Don’t shift blames.
Show empathy to both parties (the client and the delivery guy). Anyone could run into issues. Vehicle could develop fault; accident could happen…
Solve the problem. Create a WIN-WIN. I told the delivery guy to take time to solve his issue while I handle the refund. When he’s good, he can get back to me and reconcile account. This wasn’t his first time of handling logistics for me and he has never failed before.

What will you do? Let me have your view.

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brabus 30 days later, I’ve not been able to recover my fund nor got my goods supplied.