ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Built Environ.
Sec. Construction Management
Volume 11 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbuil.2025.1632509
Appraising the Role of Building Contracting Firms in Digitalisation of Artisans' Skills Development to Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 8
Provisionally accepted
Andrew Ebekozien1,2,3,4,5*
Mohamed Hafez3,6
Clinton Aigbavboa1Mohamad Shakri Mohmad Shariff3Angeline Ngozika Chibuike Nwaole7Mohamad Shaharudin Samsurijan4Nooramira Ghazali5
Romeo Osayande Aigbe8Ehimemen Osebuohien Ebekozien9- 1University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
- 2Auchi Polytechnic, Auchi, Nigeria
- 3INTI International University, Nilai, Negeri Sembilan Darul Khusus, Malaysia
- 4University of Science Malaysia (USM), Penang, Penang, Malaysia
- 5Sultan Zainal Abidin University, Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu Darul Iman, Malaysia
- 6Shinawatra University, Pathum Thani, Thailand
- 7Federal Polytechnic, Owerri, Nigeria
- 8University of Benin, Benin, Edo, Nigeria
- 9Edo University, Iyamho, Edo, Nigeria
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Studies reveal that firms' leadership acumen, global best human resources practices, sustainable business, and organisational excellence through digitalisation can boost employees' skills development and economic growth. Extant studies reveal a scarcity of empirical materials regarding building contracting firms' role in developing artisans' skills, particularly in improving the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth). This study appraises the role of building contracting firms in the digitalisation of Nigerian artisans' skills development and recommends ways to promote them and, by extension, improve the achievement of SDG 8. This research utilised a qualitative method and interviewed 36 participants from Lagos and Abuja to achieve saturation at the 31st participant. It also adopted a thematic approach to analyse the data manually. Findings show that the contracting firm's role in digitalising artisans' skills development is pertinent, but implementation may face some barriers. The perceived barriers were clustered into three groups. Findings reveal that accomplishing SDG 8 may be threatened if these barriers are not curbed, and recommend ways to promote the firm in digitalising artisans' skills development to accomplish SDG 8. This study would stir stakeholders to embrace digitalisation to improve decent work, youth employment, and economic growth.
Keywords: Building artisan, Contracting companies, Decent work and economic growth, Digitalisation, Nigeria, skills development
Received: 21 May 2025; Accepted: 21 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ebekozien, Hafez, Aigbavboa, Shariff, Nwaole, Samsurijan, Ghazali, Aigbe and Ebekozien. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Andrew Ebekozien, ebekoandy45@gmail.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.