Abstract:
The commitment of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to Sustainable Development
(SD) seems to be yielding limited positive results. This is evident in the procurement of
infrastructure within HEIs situated in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Besides being part of
a wider study into Sustainable Procurement (SP) of infrastructure in SSA HEIs, this
study reports on facilities directors’ perceptions of sustainable procurement in HEIs
within SSA. A phenomenological research design was utilised. Forty-Three HEIs
across two different countries in SSA- Nigeria and South Africa were selected based on
purposive and convenience sampling. Facilities directors in these HEIs were
interviewed through face-to-face and telephone interview sessions. Documents
concerning the procurement of infrastructure were also reviewed. Emergent data from
these sources were thematically analysed. Preliminary findings indicate that Business
As Usual (BAU) mode of procurement has remained the norm in most of the HEIs in
spite of their profess commitment to SD. Some barriers identified include: the seeming
obsession of HEIs, acting as clients, with low front-end cost of project delivery; poor
awareness of what SP entails; absence of skills required to champion the cause of SP
within such HEIs, and non-specification of SD based requirements in the contracts
documents. It is expected that this study would contribute to deepening existing
knowledge concerning implementation of SD in HEIs in SSA.
