WASHINGTON: A study jointly conducted by the Financial Derivatives Company Limited and the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry has shown that Nigeria is losing N1tn annually in revenue due to inefficiency at the nation’s ports. The study, titled ‘Nigeria: Reforming the Maritime Ports’ and commissioned by the Centre for International Private Enterprises, USA, was presented on Friday in Lagos to stakeholders in the maritime sector during the LCCI public private dialogue on port efficiency and maritime sector road map.
Seventy-nine organisations in eight different segments including operators, regulators and users of the ports participated in a semi-structured open-ended questionnaire and focused group discussion involving key stakeholders and desk workers.
According to the report, of the people interviewed, about 57 per cent were made up of corporate large users of the ports; 11 per cent were from the Federal Government’s ministries department and agencies; 10 per cent from the logistics department; six per cent were freight forwarders; four per cent were terminal operators while the remaining 12 per cent were categorised as ‘others.’
Ninety-one per cent of the respondents said that corruption was a big issue; 80 per cent said that foreign exchange crisis was top on the list of current challenges; and 85 per cent maintained that previous reforms did not succeed. The report stated that 70 per cent of those polled had above 15 years of port experience.
All the respondents said they experienced man-made delays, poor transportation, infrastructure and Information and Communication Technology. And they all called for reforms. The report stated, “Nigeria’s ports have seen 3.3 per cent compounded annual growth rate in gross tonnage of 144.2 million within the past five years and an annual growth of 1.8 per cent is expected until 2021.
“Notwithstanding this progress, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development report indicates that Nigeria trails far behind many smaller economies in Africa in terms of port and maritime activities. Nigeria, according to the report, ranks fourth in Africa in maritime industry by size of annual quantity of 20-foot equivalent unit in 2014. “Specifically, Egypt ranks first with 8,810,990 TEUs; South Africa, 4,831,461 TEUs; and Morocco, 3,070,000 TEUs, respectively while Nigeria reported 1,062,389 TEUs.”
