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From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The Federal Government, through the Chartered Institute of Project Managers of Nigeria (CIPMN), is moving to strengthen enforcement of professional licensing requirements and investigate abandoned public projects amid claims that Nigeria has lost about N17 trillion to poorly conceived and abandoned projects.
Registrar-General and Chief Executive Officer of CIPMN, Henry Mbadiwe, who disclosed this in Abuja on Monday, warned that individuals practising project management without the required licences risk prosecution and a possible two-year prison sentence under the applicable law.
He said the institute was preparing to collaborate with the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning and other government authorities to identify projects that received public funding but were never completed.
Mbadiwe spoke ahead of the institute’s induction programme scheduled for November 3 to 6, blaming weak enforcement of professional standards by ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) for the continued proliferation of abandoned and poorly executed projects.
He disclosed that no individual had yet been jailed for practising project management without the required licence, despite the institute’s efforts to enforce professional regulation.
According to him, government agencies must begin verifying the professional status of project managers before approving contracts or issuing relevant procurement clearances.
“If you look at Nigeria, we probably still report at some point about abandoned projects in Nigeria and about 17 trillion amounts in wasted resources due to project abandonments and projects that are not properly conceptualized,” he said.
“And all of these wastes, they don’t happen solely because that project wasn’t properly budgeted for.
A lot of them happen because you don’t have professionals managing that project.”
Mbadiwe argued that stronger regulation would make it easier to identify those responsible for project failures and hold them accountable.
He questioned why project managers’ professional credentials were not routinely verified during contract approval processes, including applications for certificates of no objection from the Bureau of Public Procurement.
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The registrar-general said CIPMN would publish an updated register of licensed project managers in November to enable government agencies, employers and members of the public to verify practitioners’ credentials.
The register, he explained, would also help identify individuals falsely claiming professional status and facilitate investigations into project failures, including building collapses.
“The real issue is that MDAs are not making it easy to regulate project management in Nigeria and ensure that project management professionals operate within the law,” he said.
“If you are an individual and you are being hired to lead a project in Nigeria, you need CIPMN license to do so.”
He compared professional licensing in project management with the regulatory requirements applicable to medical practitioners, insisting that the discipline should not be treated as an occupation anyone could enter without meeting prescribed standards.
“What this law has done is to professionalize the project management practice where you can’t just deliver projects how you feel,” he said.
Mbadiwe also disclosed that the institute was strengthening its examination and certification processes through technology that allows candidates to sit examinations remotely within a designated two-week period.
He said the examination platform was designed to monitor candidates and preserve the integrity of the assessment process.
On institutional partnerships, he disclosed that CIPMN was collaborating with Coal City University, Enugu; the Federal University of Technology, Abeokuta; and the Federal University of Technology, Minna, to improve professional training and certification.
He said the institute was also working to integrate professional membership pathways into university project management programmes, enabling graduates to meet relevant professional requirements before entering the labour market.
Mbadiwe maintained that improved licensing, stronger oversight and collaboration with universities would help reduce negligence, strengthen accountability and improve the delivery of public and private projects.
