ABSTRACT
Nigeria is a rapidly developing country with a very large construction programme. Fortunately it has considerable oil resources to provide funds for this development. However, the demand for amenities still exceeds the funds available so the development plans have to be carefully considered. To enable the plans to be drawn accurately it is necessary to establish current and projected construction costs. The object of this study is to investigate existing construction cost patterns and from the results obtained to propose a system for defining these patterns so that they can be used as a basis for projecting future costs. Two systems were selected for detailed investigation. These are: (a) Analysis: the analysis of costs of completed projects, (b) Synthesis: the building up of costs using the basic costs of labour, material and plant. The methods of measurement and analysis are discussed in the text. It is shown that synthesis provides the more accurate results and is recommended for use in Nigeria