Communication Is Vital [For The Success Of Any Project]

There is one thing which I have never been pleased with since the commencement of the Nyaniba project at Osu, and that is the frequency the builder communicates with me and also his attitude towards communication. It is absolutely very bad. Upon reflection I released that I was the one always calling the builder and asking him to send me updates on the progress of the building. Two weeks ago, I decided that this had gone to far and that I needed to explain to him my expectations from him in terms of his communicating with me on the progress of the building. So i picked up the phone, called him and told him that moving forward, this was what I expected from him. Last week I heard nothing from the builder. I had to send him a "whatsapp" message and a text message for him to check his "whatsapp" message. On Friday, I still had not had any word from him. I spoke to my brother in Ghana and asked him to see if he could get hold of the builder. He [my brother] was actually surprised because he had himself stressed to the builder that it was important for him to provide me with updates regularly. Finally, two days ago, the builder got in touch. He, apologised for the silence, but went on to say that there had been no progress on the building project because the structural engineer had requested that the materials the builder had purchased for the plumbing were not what was on his architectural drawings. It appears the structural engineer had different drawings from what the builder had. I managed to keep myself from exploding in anger. I told the builder that this should have been mentioned to me immediately.

I am surprised at the builders lack of concern on the issue of communication. Is it a "Ghana" thing? I mean, it is alright as a client if you live in Ghana and therefore have the flexibility of popping over to you building site whenever you feel like it. At least that way you have the option of getting updates for yourself. For his own sake, I think I will need to have a "teacher/student" chat with him on this. I do not think he has had the privilege of putting up a building for someone living outside Ghana, because if he did, he would have some sort of "template" that would enable him to provide updates to his client[s]. I have another telephone meeting with him tomorrow and my plan is to get him to email me with detailed updates twice every week. I do not think that should be too hard for him.

Lessons learnt - make sure that you as a client, sit down with your builder to agree on some form of communication by which the builder shall/will provide you with detailed regular updates. These updates should include pictures and/or videos showing progress of the building.