Management of Urban Heritage Conservation Projects in Ibadan: A Professional Framework Review

Urban heritage conservation projects in Nigerian cities face distinctive management challenges arising from unclear ownership structures, inadequate regulatory frameworks, funding constraints, and the need to balance conservation integrity with socioeconomic development pressures. This study reviews the professional management frameworks applied in four urban heritage conservation projects in Ibadan, examining their governance structures, funding arrangements, stakeholder management approaches, and project delivery outcomes. The four case studies cover the Mapo Hall restoration project, the Bower Tower rehabilitation initiative, the Old Dugbe Area heritage streetscape programme, and the Central Mosque conservation works. Primary data were collected through semi-structured interviews with fifteen project managers, conservation architects, government officials, and community stakeholders involved in the respective projects. Documentation review covered project scope, budget, timeline, and implementation records. Analysis assessed each project against a management quality framework derived from recent UNESCO and ICOMOS guidelines for heritage project management. Results reveal consistent management deficiencies across cases, including inadequate condition survey investment at inception, frequent scope changes driven by emergency discoveries, underfunding relative to actual conservation requirements, and minimal community stakeholder engagement in design decisions. The Mapo Hall project showed the highest management quality, attributed to its use of a specialist conservation architect as lead consultant. The study proposes a professional heritage project management framework for Nigerian urban conservation projects, specifying minimum pre-design investigation requirements, community engagement protocols, staged funding structures, and conservation architect appointment criteria. Keywords: heritage conservation management, urban heritage, Ibadan, professional framework, conservation architecture.