GOVERNMENT AND ATTITUDINAL BARRIERS TO GREEN PROCUREMENT IMPLEMENTATION IN PUBLIC BUILDING PROJECTS IN ABUJA, NIGERIA

Purpose: Despite severe environmental challenges and absence of explicit sustainability criteria for public building projects, public sector organizations lack systematic green procurement practices due to cultural and structural hinderances. This study investigates government and attitudinal related barriers to green procurement implementation in Nigeria’s public building projects with a view to achieving sustainable development.

Design/methodology/approach: Quantitative data were collected through questionnaires administered to stakeholders, with 334 valid responses analysed using descriptive statistics in IBM SPSS (version 25). Mean scores, standard deviations, and the Severity Index (SI) formula were employed to determine the relative impact of each barrier.

Findings: Government-related barriers such as poor awareness and delays in decision-making (SI = 88.6%) and lack of compelling laws or policies (SI = 88.2%), as well as attitudinal barriers such as fear of higher costs (SI = 91.8%) and failure to understand stakeholder needs (SI = 80.8%) emerged as the most severe. The findings emphasize the need for policy reforms, institutional incentives, and stakeholder awareness to enhance sustainable procurement in Nigeria. to overcoming these barriers and promoting sustainable procurement practices in Nigeria.

Research limitations/Implications: The study focused on only Abuja. This narrow coverage limits the generalizability of the findings to other Nigerian states.

Practical implications: Based on the findings, Nigeria must adopt a comprehensive, multi-level approach to green procurement in public building projects. This requires moving from voluntary guidelines to mandatory legislation with clear regulatory frameworks that address both structural and attitudinal barriers.

Originality/value – This study is original in systematically quantifying and ranking government and attitudinal barriers to green procurement in Nigeria’s public building projects using a Severity Index approach, thereby providing context-specific evidence and actionable insights that extend beyond descriptive accounts in previous studies.