By Professor Douglas Boateng, MSc, EngD, FCILT, FIoD, FIOM, FCMI, FGhIE, CDir (UK), CEng (UK) (Rtd)
Chartered Director | Chartered Engineer | Social Entrepreneur | Governance and Industrialisation Strategist

Distinguished guests, policymakers, business leaders, students, and fellow professionals, good morning.

Across Africa and beyond, we have seen bridges that do not meet the river, hospitals that open without equipment, and roads that crack before ribbon-cutting. These are not construction problems. They are governance failures. They reveal an inconvenient truth. We celebrate the start of projects more than we think about their future.

Every project should begin with two questions. What is its purpose? What will it truly cost across its lifetime? That is where Value Engineering meets Total Cost of Ownership.

Value Engineering helps us design what is necessary and functional. Total Cost of Ownership reminds us that the real bill starts after commissioning. When both work together, spending becomes stewardship. When ignored, we build halfway bridges that become monuments to unfinished ambition.

PURPOSE BEFORE PRICE.
Too often, we start with “How much will it cost” instead of “What are we trying to achieve?” A cheaper pump may save a million today, yet cost ten million in energy and repairs over twenty years. A shiny imported fixture may win applause, yet bankrupt maintenance budgets for a decade.

Value Engineering is not about cutting costs. It is about protecting purpose. Total Cost of Ownership ensures that purpose survives time. The bridge that stops halfway is not a monument to effort. It is a warning against shallow thinking.

LESSONS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Japan saved 1.2 billion dollars on the Tokyo Haneda Airport expansion through structured value reviews, while keeping performance intact.
Singapore and the United Arab Emirates require lifecycle cost analysis before major public works, which prevents gold plating and forces maintainable design.
In the United States, value reviews on highways and transit consistently return savings and reduce change orders. Agencies that apply VE at concept stage report better safety and schedule certainty.
In the United Kingdom, disciplined value and lifecycle methods helped steady Crossrail after delays by aligning scope to operational need.
Germany’s Berlin Brandenburg Airport avoided hundreds of millions in secondary fixes by redesigning ventilation and safety systems before final commissioning.
China has used value audits on metro and ring road projects to shorten schedules by more than ten percent while improving capacity and safety.
The Netherlands treats dikes and rivers with lifecycle discipline. Room for the River invested in nature based designs that cost less to maintain and reduce flood risk over decades.

These are not only technical feats. They are examples of disciplined governance. Where foresight becomes habit, progress follows.

AFRICA’S COSTLY CONTRADICTIONS

Across Africa, infrastructure often costs more, delivers less, and fails sooner than it should. The World Bank has estimated that about one-fifth of the continent’s annual infrastructure budget is lost to inefficiency and poor oversight.

Ghana shows both sides. The Tema Motorway Interchange used disciplined design reviews, early contractor input, and practical material choices. It saved time, saved money, and improved traffic flow. Yet unoccupied housing estates and stalled irrigation schemes show what happens when purpose, maintenance, and ownership are afterthoughts.

On urban roads in Ghana, simple drainage and subgrade improvements at the design stage extend road life by years. Where basics were skipped, pavements failed within a single rainy season. By enforcing basics, we avoided costly overlays and frequent patching.

Nigeria built roads without proper drainage, and they washed away during two wet seasons. The fix was not more asphalt. The fix was to specify gutters, culverts, and slope protection up front.

Kenya’s Standard Gauge Railway conducted value reviews that reduced cost pressure while preserving scope.
Rwanda’s feeder road programme redesigned curves, culverts, and pavement layers, improving market access by about a quarter and cutting farm-to-market travel times.
South African water utilities that adopted lifecycle asset management improved reliability and reduced non-revenue water.
Morocco’s Noor Solar complex used modular phasing and performance-based contracts to control cost and build local capability.
Ethiopia’s Green Legacy planted billions of trees at very low fiscal cost with real watershed benefits because logistics, seedling choices, and community ownership were engineered for scale.

Ghana’s hospital equipment procurement offers a familiar lesson. Buying devices without maintenance contracts and local training leads to idle theatres and dark wards. Hospitals that bundled spare parts, training, and uptime guarantees into the tender kept services running and budgets under control. That is TCO in action.

Each example makes the same point. Cost discipline does not delay progress. It delivers it.

FORM VERSUS FUNCTION

Our challenge is often not a shortage of money, but a shortage of restraint. Hospitals delayed because marble replaced ceramic. Bridges that doubled in cost because imported railings were considered more presidential.

When politics chooses form over function, even progress becomes decorative. Leadership must ask not what looks good today, but what will work well tomorrow. Every wasted cedi, dollar, or naira is a quiet theft from the unborn.

Countries that implement lifecycle management reduce maintenance costs and extend asset life. Good governance, not extra funding, is the most underused infrastructure resource on the continent.

COUNTING VALUE INSTEAD OF CONTRACTS

The real cost of a project is not what we pay to build it. It is what we pay to operate it, maintain it, and eventually replace it. Value Engineering keeps us disciplined at the start. Total Cost of Ownership keeps us honest over time.

If adopted as standard practice in ministries, boardrooms, and local governments, these methods could save tens of billions of dollars each year. Ghana’s value for money audits, South Africa’s public works reforms, and Kenya’s lifecycle planning are steps in the right direction.

A nation that learns to count value instead of contracts stops leaking development and starts flowing with progress.

PRACTICAL PAYOFFS ACROSS SECTORS

On highways, early VE reduces utility clashes, land take, and change orders.
In health, TCO contracts keep scanners, pumps, and oxygen plants running when they are needed most.
In water, lifecycle asset plans reduce non-revenue water and keep treatment works in spec.
In energy, performance-based procurement improves reliability and lowers tariffs over time.
In education, designing with local materials and maintainable finishes reduces vandalism and maintenance costs, keeping schools open and safe.

Efficiency is not the enemy of compassion. It is the currency of responsibility.

FIVE QUESTIONS EVERY LEADER MUST ASK

Before approving any project, ask:

1. Does it serve a clear and measurable purpose?
2. Is there a simpler or local alternative?
3. What will it cost across its full life, not only to build but to maintain?
4. Who will be responsible for performance after commissioning?
5. Can future generations afford the decision being made today?

These are not academic questions. They are the guardrails of generational governance.

THE CLARION CALL: ACTIONS WE CAN START TODAY

Africa and the wider developing world do not need new theories. The tools already exist. What we need is discipline.

Make value reviews mandatory for public projects above a defined threshold, and complete them before procurement.
Legislate lifecycle costing across ministries and state enterprises so projects are judged by total usefulness and sustainability, not by the lowest upfront bid.
Train engineers, quantity surveyors, planners, and project officers in value methods through universities and professional bodies, with continuing development that focuses on practical tools.
Create national value-for-money units that audit live projects and publish simple, public summaries that citizens can understand.
Reward foresight by linking promotions and contractor ratings to outcomes five years after handover, not to ribbon-cutting dates.
Strengthen local accountability by giving districts and regions the authority, skills, and simple digital dashboards to track cost, schedule, and performance.
Invite citizen vigilance. Ask communities to adopt completed assets, such as schools, boreholes, and clinics, and to report breakdowns early.

These are not heavy lifts. They are practical habits. Applied consistently, they can save more than 30 billion dollars each year across the continent. That money can build and operate hospitals, fund reliable water and power, and support industries that create dignified work.

THE LONG VIEW

The future will not reward the nation that spends the most. It will reward the nation that thinks the longest. Project sustainability is not a luxury. It is the language of survival.

The bridges we build, the roads we pave, and the systems we design must be measured not by commissioning ceremonies, but by service to people and endurance across generations.

The discipline of foresight, grounded in Value Engineering and Total Cost of Ownership, can help transform Africa from a continent of unfinished projects to a continent of completed purpose.

Let this generation be remembered not for what it started, but for what it finished. Not for how much it spent, but for how wisely it invested. Not for the applause at commissioning, but for the gratitude of those yet to be born.

Thank you.