Assessment of Barriers Influencing the Adoption of Building Information Modeling in the Construction Industry in, Lagos State, Nigeria

The implementation of building information modelling (BIM) has been slow in recent years and this is due to some prominent barriers that hinder its adoption. In this regard, this study aims to examine the significant barriers that influence the adoption of BIM in the Lagos State construction industry. Data were gathered through a questionnaire survey with 332 construction professionals in the study area. Three online structured interviews were conducted to support and validate the findings of the quantitative analysis. The results revealed six themes as major barriers namely; finance, industry, interest, leadership, legal and professional barriers. These themes revealed lack of interest, and awareness and understanding of BIM; absence of in-house BIM competent professionals; unavailability of these professionals in the labour market; and lack of policies and regulations on copyright ownership and enforcement from government agencies and industry leadership as barriers. Other barriers are people’s inability or refusal to learn new technologies and processes, perception of BIM as a waste of time and human resources, and lack of clarity of professional roles in BIM. Thus, there is a need for the government to design and implement policies (regulatory, economic and information management) to promote financial schemes to support construction firms and professionals and to reduce financial barriers. It is also important for government to lay down rules and regulations that must be enforced among the construction professionals and firms in the Lagos State construction industry.