Abstract
The role of communication together with technological development has generated the rapid
growth experienced in the construction of telecommunication industry in Nigeria and the world
at large. Globally, the construction industry has one of the highest employment rates, and is a
major contributor to the nation’s economy. The construction industry is a high-risk industry
which is known for the high rate of fatalities. Therefore it struggles to maintain a balance
between safety and production as it can barely operate an almost error-free construction. Lack
of safety practices in the construction of telecommunication masts and towers has the ability
of setting back the growth of telecommunication industry, thereby negatively affecting the
growth of the nation’s economy. Therefore, this study intends to identify and address the gaps
in the current safety practices observed during the construction of telecommunication masts
and towers, the barriers to achieving safety practices during construction of telecommunication
masts and towers, the drivers to ensuring safety practices during construction
telecommunication masts and towers and finally, the technological innovations that can be
adopted to improve safety practices during the construction of telecommunication masts and
towers in Nigeria.
The data used for this research study were obtained from both primary and secondary sources.
The secondary data were collected through comprehensive reviews of related studies. The
primary data were collected through a structured questionnaire from professionals in the
Nigeria telecommunication industries who are responsible for maintaining safety during
construction. One hundred and three (103) questionnaires were received from the one hundred
and thirty two (132) questionnaire distributed to respondents using Google Forms, representing
a response rate of 78 per cent. In ensuring the reliability of the research questionnaire,
Cronbach’s alpha coefficient reliability was conducted on the scaled research questions.
Findings from the research were analysed using descriptive statistics and exploratory factor
analysis (EFA). The results from the descriptive data analysis of the current safety practices
revealed personal protective equipment (PPE) as the most preferred choice of the respondents,
followed by fire extinguishers, safety inspections, and the prohibition of unauthorised entry to
construction sites. Furthermore, the findings for barriers to achieving safety practices revealed
poor maintenance of work equipment as the top barriers to enhancing safety practices in the
construction sites, according to the respondents. This was followed by poor project
coordination, financial constraints, lack of communication, lack of safety attention and lack of
feedback assessment. In addition, the findings related to drivers to ensuring safety in the
v
construction of telecommunication masts and towers in Nigeria revealed workers’ personal
safety activities and devices for enhancing safety as the most important variables according to
the respondents’ selection. These were followed by in-house safety activities, supervisor
competency, human or environmental behaviour, assessment of disaster, safety practices,
teaching programmes on safety, safety management practices, risk assessment and the use of
automated equipment and tools. Likewise, the findings from the technological innovations
adopted to improve safety practices revealed that smart camera systems were the most
important technology for maintaining safety, followed by drones, smart technology, building
information modelling (BIM), the Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI).
Finally, automation and robotics, augmented reality (AR), wearable device/technology, robotic
exoskeleton, geographical information systems (GIS), virtual reality (VR), laser scanning and
LiDAR were revealed to enhance safety practices in the construction of telecommunication
masts and towers in Nigeria.
Additional analysis was carried out on the data using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using
varimax rotation to obtain the reliability and correlation of the factors shown in the study. The
research study recommends that for safety practices to improve on the construction sites, the
management team, contractors, supervisors and the workers have a greater role to play by
paying more attention to possible hazards that can arise as a result of negligence or failure to
put to use the above highlighted safety practices in the Nigeria telecommunication construction
industry.
Keywords: Safety practice, Barriers to safety, Drivers to ensuring safety, Technological
innovations, Construction industry