Drivers of Value for Money in Public Infrastructure Procurement in Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria.

Despite efforts to improve public procurement policies and guidelines in Nigeria, infrastructure delivery experiences several challenges that have hampered economic development, resulting in public infrastructure deficiency of value for money. Identifying drivers of value for money in public infrastructure procurement in Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria, is the aim of this study. The mixedmethod research design was adopted for this study. Purposeful and snowball sampling techniques were utilized to determine the study respondents. Data collection was implemented using a survey questionnaire. From the systemic literature review, 14 drivers were identified. The dependability of the research instrument was conducted using the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test of adequacy and Bartlett's Test of Sphericity. The data obtained from this study was subjected to descriptive statistics and factor analysis. The study findings identified public sector technical innovation and transfer, products and services meeting users' demand, efficient risk allocation, low project life cycle cost, and complementary advantages of public-private partnership as the most significant drivers of value for money in public infrastructure procurement. This study justifies an evident need to highlight and incorporate value-for-money drivers toward efficient and sustainable public infrastructure delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]