Poor planning stalls projects in Africa — Deloitte

By  Macharia  Kamau

Failure to plan for unforeseen circumstances by State agencies implementing mega projects in Africa often results in such ventures costing much more than intended.

A new report notes that many agencies are unable to navigate risks associated with implementation of infrastructure projects. Such projects end up taking longer and costing taxpayers more.

“More often than not, a number of risks that crop up in the operational phase could have been avoided if considered while the project was in the development phase,” said the report by Deloitte.

According to the report titled Infrastructure asset lifecycle: Operational risk mitigation from project inception, it is usually in the operational phase that management of operational risk and associated uncertainties is undertaken.

“Causes of operational risk are often rooted in decisions taken in earlier stages and most often identified in later stages after which it is too late to remedy fundamental failures in planning design. This is the long-term cost of design decisions made in a vacuum,” it asserts.