The Effects of Electronic Procurement on Building Construction Projects in Rivers State, Nigeria

This study examined the effects of electronic procurement on building construction projects in Rivers State, Nigeria. The objectives were to assess the level of adoption of eprocurement, identify barriers to its adoption, and develop strategies to overcome these barriers. A mixed-methods approach was employed, involving descriptive statistics, relative importance index, severity index analysis, factor analysis. surveys, principal component analysis (PCA) and correlation analysis to analyze data from 180 respondents in the construction industry. This research found out that there is a high Relative Importance Index analysis (RII) for awareness to the tune of (0.734) and system integration to the tune of (0.776), which suggests that while there is a strong understanding of e-procurement's benefits and its integration with existing systems, its actual usage is somewhat less frequent showing a relative importance index of (RII= 0.689[]. However, significant barriers were identified, using Severity Index analysis, the result revealed that the cost security concerns (73.6%), lack of expertise (67.2%), and technical challenges (66.6%[]. Resistance to change, while notable, has a lower severity index (61.0%[]. The high cost and security concerns are major hurdles for adoption. PCA results indicated that change management and cost management are the most significant factors influencing e-procurement adoption, followed by technical support and security measures. The correlation analysis revealed significant relationship between efficiency, cost and time metrics in both systems. Recommendations include enhancing training and education programs, implementing cost management strategies, addressing security concerns, providing technical support, and fostering change management, which aims to overcome the identified barriers and fully leverage the benefits of eprocurement systems in the construction industry.