**1. Introduction**

Over the years, the focus on occupational health and safety matters has substantially increased in many nations, particularly in developed countries. Such improvement could be ascribed to numerous factors such as new methods of technical management and standards put in place by these countries. In developing countries, no such adequate provisions have been taken to moderate accidents on construction sites [1]. Nevertheless, all sectors of the economy are connected with potential exposure to risks and hazards of injuries and illnesses [2]. Health and safety appear so easy to

pronounce—just make sure individuals do not get hurt, in practice, it is difficult to accomplish health and safety in an organization. Improving occupational health and safety is a major matter across the construction industry globally [3]. Occupational accidents are sources of concern to employees, organizations, and regulatory agencies because the relationship between accidents and injury or death can be easily recognized. It is principally for this purpose that many discussions on safety and health issues are focused. The construction industry is a significant section of the economy in many nations but it is mostly labeled to be the most hazardous. Fatality and death frequency in the construction sector globally may show intrinsically poor health and safety management norms. According to Rowlinson [4], even with decades of research that has been trying to solve the problems of its failure, construction has been the poorest in terms of safety performance globally. The industry has been characterized by various issues around its division, resulting in conflicts, communication problems, and a lack of collaboration among the stakeholders. Among parts of the problems faced by the industry is from the clients with the absence of long-time view of controlling its properties and worsened by the bad organization on site and lack of appropriate complete design of temporary and permanent works. These problems affecting the sector are not only limited to safety but also include sustainability, productivity, and quality. The sector considers itself to be distinct and the issues faced by it are seen to be wicked in nature.

At the global level, the construction sector accounts for 30% of the entire fatality [5]. The construction sector is responsible for 20.6% of fatal accidents in the workplace encountered in the European Union (EU) [6], whereas it engaged only 10% of the working population [7]. The overview of fatalities in the United States of America (USA) revealed that 4339 employees lost their lives in the construction sector from 2011 to 2015 [8]. Similarly, employees in the United States of America's construction sector experienced 7% of entire private-sector injuries in 2017 [9]. With particular reference to the United States of America, the fatality rate in the construction sector in 2018 was 3.0 per 100,000 employees with 1008 fatal occupational injuries [10]. In Japan, the construction sector's occupational accident rate was 32.2% in 2020 [11]. The figure for fatal injuries in the UK construction sector was 39 in 2020/21, a reduction of 3 from the preceding year with a total figure of 42 [12]. In Australia, the three priority sectors, agriculture, construction, and road transport, accounted for 55% of employee fatalities between 2015 and 2019, with the construction sector accounting for 17% [13].

Furthermore, in terms of monetary value, according to Gibb et al. [14], an estimated sum of £848 M was spent yearly by the UK employers in the construction industry apart from expenditures borne by the individual and the society, while the Health Safety Executive 2019 (HSE 2019) [15] highlighted that a sum of £1.2 billion was spent in the construction industry for injuries and ill-health in 2017/2018. Occupational accidents in the construction industry cost Australia a sum of 2860 (\$ million) between 2012 and 2013 [16]. Similarly, Geetha M. Waehrer et al. [17] in 2002 highlighted that the costs of occupational accidents in the United States of America were estimated at \$11.5 billion, 15% of these costs were from the private sector, and in general, the cost per case of injury was \$27,000, nearly twice the case per cost of \$15,000 for the entire sector in 2002. The sum of \$4,634,501,000 was the total estimated cost of construction fatalities in the USA from 2011 to 2015, as highlighted by Manzo [8].

Hazardous working conditions influence employees in different methods. High occupational accidents may create fear among employees who intend to be working in such organizations. Therefore, an organization needs to identify the potential risk before the commencement of any construction work. This can be accomplished by assigning competent workers to perform hazard identification and risk assessment. A *Approaches to Improving Occupational Health and Safety of the Nigerian Construction Industry DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113011*

#### **Figure 1.**

*Accident classification by industry (2014–2016).Source: Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Abuja, Nigeria.*

vibrant method is required to be defined regarding how hazards are to be identified and monitored to ensure that construction sites are kept free from accidents and injury [18].

Nigerian construction industry is not exempted from the menace of occupational accidents. The construction sector accounted for the highest percentage of occupational accidents that occurred between 2014 and 2016 [19], as illustrated in **Figure 1**. The problems of occupational accidents require drastic steps. Therefore, this study aims to identify the approaches toward improving occupational health and safety in the Nigerian construction industry.
