Regulatory Compliance and Building Collapse Prevention in Lagos Construction Projects
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.68050/JAMS.2026.454Keywords:
building collapse; regulatory compliance; enforcement mechanisms; stakeholder engagement; Lagos State; construction governance; project managementAbstract
Building collapse remains a recurrent and preventable urban hazard in Lagos State, Nigeria, despite an extensive construction-regulation framework. This article examines regulatory compliance, enforcement effectiveness, stakeholder engagement, and their relationship with perceived building-collapse risk in Lagos construction projects. The study is especially situated within Lagos as a coastal megacity characterised in the project by rapid urbanisation, land scarcity, intense construction pressure, high-density development, and environmental vulnerabilities that can magnify the consequences of weak construction governance. A descriptive survey design was adopted. A structured questionnaire was distributed to 333 respondents drawn from built-environment professionals, developers and property owners, residents and community members, regulatory officials, and academics/researchers in Eti-Osa, Mushin, and Lagos Mainland; 295 valid responses were obtained, representing an 88.6% response rate. Descriptive statistics, Pearson Product-Moment Correlation, and Multiple Linear Regression were used. The results indicate low regulatory compliance (mean = 2.70), ineffective enforcement mechanisms (mean = 2.38), and weak stakeholder engagement (mean = 2.44). Regulatory compliance had a strong negative relationship with building-collapse perception (r = -0.612, p < 0.001), while enforcement effectiveness also showed a significant negative relationship (r = -0.578, p < 0.001). Regulatory compliance, enforcement effectiveness, and stakeholder engagement jointly explained 58.1% of the variance in collapse perception (R² = 0.581, p < 0.001), with regulatory compliance as the strongest predictor. The study concludes that building-collapse prevention in Lagos requires governance reform alongside technical controls, with emphasis on sustained permit compliance, risk-based inspection, coordinated enforcement, professional accountability, community participation, and digital compliance systems.
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