Anorldblanco

responsible father, student of African history

[Buregyeya Apollo, PhD @ApolloBuregyeya]

We must innovate to take engineers back to construction sites.
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This post is a sequel to the previous one I made on “why construction is relatively more expensive in Africa than anywhere else on Earth.” It’s about the guardians of construction quality and cost, the Engineers.

Africa’s disproportionately high construction costs are rooted in a systemic flaw: the exclusion of engineers from sites due to contract models designed for Europe. Traditional frameworks like PPDA, FIDIC, ODA, etc., that combine risks and transfer them to a single party, a jack of all trades, the contractor, thrive where construction expenditures allocate 70% of the total budget (and risk) to engineering (labor/technology) and 30% to procurement (materials), a European reality. This suits their mechanized, high-labor-cost environment. It also communicates that engineering (labor and technology) carries a higher risk than procurement. So, qualified engineers are valued more on sites in Europe and trusted to manage the 70% risk their commerce structure allocates to them.

In Africa, however, procurement (supply of construction materials) dominates 80% of construction budgets, leaving engineering—the driver of quality—at 20%. This mismatch elevates profit-focused traders over engineers, undermining infrastructure outcomes.

The 80/20 procurement-engineering split incentivizes traders, not engineers, to lead projects. Procurement’s 80% budget share—where materials like cement are treated as commodities—requires minimal technical skill, enabling traders to prioritize profit. Meanwhile, the 20% engineering budget, which determines 80% of a project’s long-term value, is neglected. Contractors/businessmen hire unqualified labor for technical tasks, resulting in poor designs, safety risks, and infrastructure prone to failure.

Colonial-era standards exacerbate the problem. British measurement systems (e.g., pricing concrete in cubic meters) clash with African practices (buying cement in bags). Designed for Europe’s 70/30 labor-material ratio where packaging is important to enable labour replacing machines to function well, these standards fail in Africa’s low cost labour, high cost materials (20/80) context. Especially that labour is still our competitive advantage. Traders exploit this chaos, while engineers—bound by ethics and structured processes—are sidelined. Consequently, the 20% engineering budget, critical to project success, is mismanaged.

The fallout is stark. Government engineers waste time evaluating bids—a procurement task—instead of designing infrastructure. And, projects become material-moving exercises, not technical solutions. The result? Substandard roads, dams, and buildings that drain budgets without delivering value.

EcoConcrete Ltd (@ecoconcreteUG) addresses this through jengaBIM, a construction simulation that separates procurement functions from labor and technology functions, so that the client can retain the simple role of procurement while making contracts only labor and technology-focused in scope. This causes businessmen to lose interest in construction services procurement since it will not be their domain of competence to manage the associated risk. Meanwhile, by retaining the materials supply function, the client can easily implement industry policies like BUBU and easily drive economic growth.🤷🏿‍♂️

[Anorldblanco @anorldblanco]

@saadShots @KyokwijukaA come tell these people about the pineapples of kitambi

[Anorldblanco @anorldblanco]

@bellogallico11 @gilbert_barigye @KISOBALeague @GhettoClass_05 @Priscahpetite @engineerwempunu @TeamHaven_K02 @TeesMeat @twineshots @TheGiants99 @bugingo_gilbert Congra congra Mr Engineer

[Anorldblanco @anorldblanco]

@Micpapa11 thank you Dr. Arthur for shading more light about a great killer amidst us today.
depression is real and has most recently become contagious

[Akatwijuka Arthur🇺🇬 @KingArthurAk]

The darkness comes, both night and day,
A world obscured in shades of gray.
Depression—silent, cold, and deep,
A killer that won’t let you sleep.

[Anorldblanco @anorldblanco]

@edwardbaruga @Beyonce @Tyllaaaaaaa your tags are crazy 😂 congratulations counsel

[Akatwijuka Arthur🇺🇬 @KingArthurAk]

So, depression is not just a mental issue—it has significant effects on the body and can lead to long-term health problems if left untreated.

[Akatwijuka Arthur🇺🇬 @KingArthurAk]

What is depression? My attempt to break this down in simple language.

Depression is one of the most common mental illnesses, affecting millions of people worldwide. It's much more than just feeling sad or having a bad day.

[Anorldblanco @anorldblanco]

@Elgio_70 Noyenda mike akwiite

[Anorldblanco @anorldblanco]

@HomyAine @AlexTymz @DerickTumwiine @galaxyk14fc @poetry_eye @RotaractD9214 happy birthday

[Anorldblanco @anorldblanco]

@TECNOMobileUG 1:0 Spain win

[Anorldblanco @anorldblanco]

@omzigaba Happy birthday big man

[Emmanuel Boboli @BoboliEmmanuel]

@albertKatruGuma Let him also share his Profit - Loss Statements for 2019 - 2023; Tax Returns for 2019 - 2023; Audited Books of Accounts for 2019 - 2023; The're so many chapters missing in that story. We want to flip page by page😀😀

[Anorldblanco @anorldblanco]

@MMWormsky Adam used to come to court with a land cruiser

[Anorldblanco @anorldblanco]

@MASAMBAPINTOJ @kyeruphiona You and who Masamba 😂

[Anorldblanco @anorldblanco]

@KyokwijukaA @begumiisa62103 @KagutaMuseveni @JanetMuseveni @mkainerugaba @NRMOnline @emmanuel_dombo @namanyaboaz @silasbaryagasha Iwe kyokwijuka do not capitalize on someone's error as a way of achieving cheap excitement aba kigarama titwashemeregwa

[Anorldblanco @anorldblanco]

@EngKaruru Oliwa

[Anorldblanco @anorldblanco]

@EngKaruru Well said been in jinja for a while and the place is all so cool

[Anorldblanco @anorldblanco]

@EngKaruru What's the problem karuru

[Anorldblanco @anorldblanco]

@CAtuhumuza Congratulations brother