ENGINEERING LAW AND MANAGERIAL ECONOMICS FOR INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT

ENGINEERING LAW AND MANAGERIAL ECONOMICS FOR INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA CHALLENGES AND WAY FORWARD

• Nigeria is now recognised as the largest economy in Africa due to the growth in GDP seen in recent years, and, according to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, national GDP stands at NGN 80. 22 trn. Given that the engineering sector underpins a lot of other sectors, such as construction, power, agriculture, telecommunications and so on, it plays a prominent role in its contribution to GDP.

• This success is due principally to the sector’s expertise, which generally amounts to enough talent and capacity to cope with any project that might come its way. This expertise can best be seen in the construction and telecommunications industries, which are booming sectors in the country. What’s more, the spectrum of the ongoing engineering activities and the growth in GDP has enhanced

• the development and training of young engineers, as well as the creation of job opportunities.

The concept of Engineering Law • Engineering law refers to the application of laws applying to the practice of professional engineering. It is the study of how ethics and legal frameworks should be adopted to ensure public safety surrounding the practice of engineering.

• . Managerial Economics can be defined as amalgamation of economic theory with business practices so as to ease decisionmaking and future planning by management. Managerial Economics assists the managers of a firm in a rational solution of obstacles faced in the firm's activities.

Challenges • Roads: In-adequate road infrastructure is central to Nigeria’s economic growth. it is at the core of good governance and public welfare. Any improvement in road infrastructure positively impacts the nation’s gross domestic products, GDP. The road sector accounts for about 90 per cent of all freight and passenger movements in Nigeria.

• accounts for about 70 per cent of the national vehicular and freight traffic. The poor state of Nigerian roads can be attributed to the following challenges: The current institutional structure for the management of roads is inefficient. Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) has been established as an interim measure before instituting more substantive sector reforms, as Nigeria continues to rely on traditional general budget allocations to fund

• Increased maintenance and capacity expansions are needed to improve the current state of Nigeria’s infrastructure, so as to strengthen the intermodal transport of goods and passengers, would improve the safety, convenience, travel time and cost of Nigerian transportation and reduce carbon/particulate emissions.

• Maritime infrastructure: Most of the nation’s six seaports are running on old infrastructure, bedeviled by poor maintenance culture. Ranging from the water beds and channels to cargo discharge facilities and then port access, the story has been gory. The issue of congestions at Lagos ports have been intractable for years now while underutilization has been the bane of the Eastern and Delta ports.

• Other challenges include manpower development and training on equipment handling and maintenance.

• Corruption and political dysfuntionalities

WAYFORWARD