Uche Usim, Abuja
Relevant players and stakeholders in the project management space arose from a conference on Tuesday with a call on government and major players in the private sector to prioritize improved delivery on projects.
Speaking at the 2019 edition of the National Project Management (ProMaCon), participants highlighted the need to mainstream project management both at the planning and execution stages of projects and important interventions.
Director of ProMaCon, Mr. Taopheek Babayeju in his opening remarks highlighted the advantages of institutionalizing project management.
According to him, project management strategies are key to moving the country to the next level by addressing issues of abandoned projects and poorly conceived ones.
Babayeju, who is also the CEO of iCentra stated that there was a strong link between development and project management.
He said: “It (project management) is that indispensable tool that the developed nations and successful organisations have used to achieve developmental and business results. Studies have shown that organisations that have adopted Project Management in driving their initiatives have succeeded more, no wonder why many organisations both in the public and private sector, local and international now set up Project Management Offices (PMOs) to support their Strategy Units.
“However, is important to note that project management is not about construction, nor it, it is also not just a practice, it is a way of life. It is both science and art of execution which helps to close the gap between strategy and result, between budget and delivery, between aspirations and development.
“Worried by the prevalence of poor project delivery for national development and lack of awareness about the practice of project management, we started out on the journey to ‘Institutionalise Project Management Best Practices in Nigeria’.
“What started as an initiative of iCentra, with support from other organisations soon metamorphosed into an independent legal entity incorporated as ProMaCon Project Management Foundation LTD/GTE.
“ProMaCon has over the years engaged stakeholders from Presidency to legislature, while hosting several of them as guests, featured 32 keynote and technical speakers from all over the world (Africa, US and UK) hosted about 3,000 local and international delegates, who remain actively in our network”, he added.
Also speaking at the conference, which had as its theme: “Accelerating National Development Through Project Management Best Practices, Chief Statistician for the Federation, Dr. Yemi Kale stated that there are areas which Nigeria has performed well with regard to project implementation, just as he opined that the country has failed in other areas.
“We are not where we should be today because of poor project management process. We have thousands of abandoned projects all over the country and this is likely as a result of poor project management.
“One of the major reasons why we have not achieved national development is because project management has not been given its rightful place in terms of planning and implementation of policies,” he said.
On his part, Managing Director Nigeria Incentive Risk (NIRSAL), Mr. Abdulhameed Aliyu disclosed that the agency has attracted and guaranteed N101.02 billion worth of investment into the agricultural sector over the past four years, according to
According to him, N1.27 billion interest draw back paid to 266 obligors, as well as N4.6 billion claims out of which N4.3 billion has been recovered so far.
He explained that through the Area Yield Index Insurance Product, NIRSAL protected up to N6.5 billion revenue of over 37,399 farmers with over N121 million paid as compensation; created over 400,000 jobs and impacted over 2 million Nigerians, provides GAP trading for 700,000 farmers and 74 extension workers.