Digital construction future for Africa now

Digital construction and its challenges in Africa

The use of digital technology to enhance construction processes and operations has become popular all over the world. Only a few countries including South Africa are at the forefront of its adoption in Africa while countries like China and Saudi Arabia, Canada, Brazil, and Turkey are leading in adopting digital technologies in construction in other parts of the world.

Despite the popularisation of digitalised technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, drones, 3D printing, robotics, smart buildings, smart cities, digital twins, and the metaverse, Africa is yet to up with this new concept due to major factors such as lack of awareness of digitalisation, poor power supply, lack of adequate digital training facilities, high cost of digital infrastructure and lack of research in digitalisation.

Addressing core issues

To improve the effectiveness of construction operations and project performance through the adoption of digital technologies, poor power supply has to be addressed by the government, professionals need to be trained on digital tools, regulations should be put in place for the digital technology industry, professional bodies need to create awareness of the benefits of digitalisation and built environment stakeholders should organise conferences and seminars to encourage their members to adopt digitalisation.

About

Article written by Babatunji Adegoke, MRICS, PMP, MNSE, MNIQS. Babatunji who has over a decade of hands-on experience in the delivery and management of projects in various sectors including complex projects in the property, construction, and civil engineering industry. Babatunji is a Chartered Project Management Surveyor of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (MRICS), a Project Management Professional (PMP) certified by PMI USA, a corporate member of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, a professional member of the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors, a registered Engineer with the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria and a registered Quantity Surveyor with Quantity Surveyors Registration Board of Nigeria.

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