An Examination of the Process Involved in the Choice of Outsourced Consultants by the Banking and Telecommunications Sectors in Lagos State, Nigeria

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the process involved in selecting outsourced consultants by the banking and telecommunication sectors in Lagos state, Nigeria with a view to providing information to aid the real estate consultants in their CRE outsourcing practice. The study comprised of all the commercial banks, merchant banks, non-interest banks and the major Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) organizations in Lagos, Nigeria. Primary data were obtained from 33 questionnaire that were distributed which represents the overall population of banks and telecommunication companies selected from the Nigerian Stock Exchange list and all questionnaire were retrieved which amounted to 100% retrieval rate due to accessibility and readiness to divulge information concerning their real estate operations. The data were analysed using mean deviation, frequency and percentage. The study showed that organisations adopt the World Bank procedures for selecting outsourced consultants. It further established that skills such as market knowledge (0.52), investment analysis (0.21) and negotiation (0.18) were the three most important skill needed to be possessed by consultants providing real estate services. Further findings revealed that overall professionalism (0.27) was the most important personal attribute to be possessed by the real estate consultant and that in choosing outsourced consultants organisations are influenced by factors such as proven track record and specialisation in the process to be outsourced. It was also established that the method used in identifying these consultants was through advertisement (78.79%). This study will aid corporate real estate consultants in identifying the processes involved in outsourcing and what qualities they need to possess so that they can meet up to the standard put in place for outsourcing by the various organisations in Nigeria.

Keywords: Banking, Telecommunications Sector, Corporate Real Estate, Outsourcing, Consultants