Appraising safety performance of building artisans on Nigerian sites to achieve Sustainable Development Goals 3 and 8

Purpose Artisans are critical components of the processes in building contracting firms. However, their safety performance may need to be more encouraging to mitigate the threat to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3 (health and well-being) and 8 (decent work and economic growth), particularly in small and medium indigenous contracting firms' sites. Studies regarding building artisans’ safety performance in developing countries are scarce. This study investigated the factors hindering building artisans’ safety performance and suggested measures to improve safety performance on sites in Nigeria and, by extension, improve the achievement of SDGs 3 and 8. Design/methodology/approach This research used oral interviews to collect data in four of Nigeria’s cities. The researchers engaged 40 knowledgeable interviewees and achieved saturation at the 35th participant. This study adopted the manual approach to analyse the data and presented the findings using the thematic outline. Findings Findings reveal that despite the rewards of safety management practices on construction sites, there is low artisans’ safety performance, especially in small and medium contracting firms. Findings clustered the 29 identified hindrances facing Nigeria’s building artisans’ safety performance on sites into three groups. These hindrances can threaten SDGs 3 and 8. This study proffered measures to improve artisans’ safety performance on construction sites. Originality/value As part of this study’s insight, it will assist stakeholders in shedding light on how to improve artisan safety performance on building sites from a new perspective if the government signs into law the updated Labour Bill and, by extension, improve the achievement of SDGs 3 and 8.