Investigating personal protective equipment awareness of artisans in the informal sector: issues and measures to improve achieving SDG 3

Purpose The informal sector construction artisans are critical to the economic growth of a nation. The frequent incidence of hazards, especially where informal sector construction artisans are engaged, may threaten achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3. Records show that anti-safety issues (absence of personal protective equipment [PPE]) threaten the lives and well-being of artisans and may be rampant in informal construction sites. Thus, this study aims to investigate the level of the informal sector’s artisans’ PPE awareness and offer suggestions to improve it and, by extension, improve achieving Goal 3. Design/methodology/approach The researchers collected the study’s data through face-to-face interviews from selected building sites with the approval of the clients and/or representatives in Benin City and Lagos, Nigeria. In total, 40 artisans were engaged across major construction trades, and the study achieved saturation. The researchers manually analysed the collected data and presented them using the thematic method. Findings Results show lax compliance with basic safety awareness and PPE, ignorance of the consequences to their health, the client’s attitude not to incur extra cost for safety kits, weak educational background, lax supervision of construction sites, lax safety compliance by authorised agencies and absence of informal sector artisans’ engagement regulation emerged as the root cause for the low compliance. Originality/value As part of the study’s implications, it recommends that the relevant government ministries, departments and/or agencies improve and extend their safety monitoring to informal construction sites to improve achieving SDG 3. This study may stir policymakers to persuade the Nigerian President to sign the Labour, Safety, Health and Welfare Bill 2012 (updated in 2016) into law and, by extension, improve achieving Goal 3.