ABSTRACT
Building projects in Ahmadu Bello University are experiencing astronomical cost of construction resources especially materials, manpower, machines and overheads. Therefore clients commissioning building projects are cost-conscious and will not want to be saddled with avoidable and unnecessary expenses termed in this research as unproductive costs. It is against this background that building costs were critically examined to isolate these unnecessary expenses that are of no effect on building projects from inception to completion and consequently propose ways of minimising them. To achieve this main objective, a review of existing contractual system, cost patterns, cost control techniques as well as field investigation of relevant data was made to isolate costs that fit the definition of unproductive costs in building projects. Therefore data were collected and analyzed on selected building projects undertaken by the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. It has been observed that loopholes in administrative procedures and inadequate management skills and tools are mainly responsible for unproductive costs in building projects leading to variation orders, fluctuation of materials and labour, delays, etc. The average unproductive cost was found to be as high as N1,971,417.29 representing 45 per cent of the total initial contract sum of N4,373,558.57.