Nigerian ports have undergone modest improvements in recent years, driven by modernised projects, policy reforms, and investments in human capital, ANOZIE EGOLE writes
The Nigerian Ports Authority’s efforts to bring sanity to the nation’s ports have received widespread acclaim from stakeholders. The authority’s initiatives aimed at improving efficiency, reducing congestion, and enhancing the overall experience of port users have been praised by shipping lines, terminal operators, and cargo handlers.
Stakeholders have commended the NPA’s leadership for its commitment to creating a favourable business environment and promoting economic growth. The authority’s efforts to streamline processes, eliminate gridlock, and improve infrastructure have been particularly welcomed.
They say the Managing Director of the Nigeria Ports Authority, Dr Abubakar Dantsoho, with the unalloyed support of the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, has turned things around for the better at the agency.
Upon his appointment to head the agency, Dantsoho has his focus set on implementing deliberate performance improvement measures geared towards stabilising Nigeria’s foremost trade facilitation platform for competitiveness and improved value addition to the national economy.
On assumption of duty in 2024, Dantsoho promised to ensure efficiency by embarking on port rehabilitation. In a bid to keep to his words, work has commenced with the finalisation of documentation and commencement of actual works on the aged Tincan Island Port complex and the comprehensive rehabilitation of Apapa, Rivers, Onne, Warri, and Calabar Port complexes to assure their infrastructural integrity and bring them up to speed with the contemporary demands of the international maritime ecosystem.
“The NPA under the current administration has also taken steps towards port capacity expansion through the operationalisation of new ports and the advancement of green port development,” a clearing agent, John Eji, stated. In May, Dantsoho led the NPA management to finalise an agreement for the $1bn development of Snake Island Port to be built on an 85-hectare site within the Snake Island Integrated Free Zone.
This is in addition to Badagry Deep Seaport, Ondo Deep Seaports, and Burutu Ports, which are at various stages of progress under the technical guidance of the NPA. With the Port Community System and the National Single Window, among other initiatives for port competitiveness being aggressively implemented, it is evident that the NPA is poised to transform its strategic intent of being the maritime logistics hub for sustainable port services in Africa from potential to actuality.
Under Dantsoho, the NPA has concluded Nigeria’s membership of the International Port Community System Association, which is a necessary precursor to the implementation of the NSW project. Single Window operation is the global trade best practice for the electronic exchange of information relating to over 500 million twenty-foot equivalent units of movement and billions of tonnes of cargo for sea, air, and land transport modes. These strides wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the electronic call-up system.
The electronic management of truck traffic, which was conceived by previous administrations of the agency to sustainably tackle the excruciating traffic gridlock that hitherto characterised the port access roads, has been firmed up through the introduction of satellite truck parks and time belts, resulting in significant ease of doing business at the ports.
Dantosho’s insistence on port efficiencies has culminated in Nigeria’s attainment of a trade surplus of N5.81tn ($3.7bn) in the third quarter of 2024, as reported by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group foreign trade alert through exports predominantly consummated on the platforms of the Nigerian Ports Authority. Also, the successful implementation of President Bola Tinubu’s strategy for the sale of crude and other petroleum products in naira, which, in addition to saving billions of forex earnings previously lost to importation, resulted in guaranteeing national energy security, deepening the balance of trade, and creating direct and indirect jobs. NPA under the current administration has put public-private partnership modalities in motion to derive revenue from ports’ independent power production, bunkering stations, fallow lands for logistics, freshwater provision, ship repairs, and maintenance.
Dantsoho recently undertook an investment drive tour of the Eastern Ports, of which the agency has received several expressions of interest for investment in Rivers, Calabar, and Burutu Ports. As a result, the West Africa Container Terminal (WACT)-APM Terminals Nigeria recently received Hapag-Lloyd, one of the world’s leading liner shipping companies, as it launched its service at the terminal. The launch of the new service was celebrated with a special ceremony at the WACT-APM Terminals Nigeria Onne port, marking the partnership with Hapag-Lloyd’s weekly shipping service, directly connecting East Nigeria to global trade routes.
Speaking at the event, the Chief Executive Officer of APM Terminals Nigeria, Frederik Klinke, described the event as not a maiden call but the launch of Hapag-Lloyd as a shipping line in East Nigeria. He said the development is an important milestone and an indication of the strong partnership that APM Terminals has globally with Hapag-Lloyd.
“This is an important milestone in East Nigeria for building its potential. We at APM Terminals have a very strong belief in the East Nigerian market. We are very proud of the partnerships that we have with our shipping line customers. Now, with Hapag Lloyd being among them, and our government partners, as well as the customers that we serve in East Nigeria. What we are trying to do is to lift the East Nigerian market. There is a lot of trade potential that requires better logistics solutions,” he said.
The Country Managing Director of Hapag-Lloyd, Himmat Ahlawat, described Nigeria as one of the most important markets while also reiterating that customer service is the biggest priority for the Hapag-Lloyd team.
He said, “We consider Nigeria as one of the most important markets, if not the most important, in Africa and Eastern Nigeria. Without calling Eastern Nigeria, our ambitions here will remain unfulfilled. At Hapag Lloyd, the biggest priority we have is customer service. If there are no customers and our customers are not happy, then we have no right to exist. So, our actual stated aim is to be the undisputed king of customer service. So that is something we should bring to the table because we use a variety of digital tools to help our customers, which the rest of the market has still not started using.”
Challenges
Take it or leave it; despite these achievements, there are still some challenges that industry experts believe are hindering the full optimisation of the potential in the sector.
These stakeholders believe that the issue of empty containers littering the nation’s seaports is not properly managed by the NPA. They stated that the NPA is supposed to enforce strict compliance with the proper use of holding bays by terminal operators.
A few weeks ago, a maritime research group under the auspices of the Sea Empowerment and Research Centre stated that an estimated 65,000 to 100,000 twenty-foot equivalent units of empty containers are currently dumped and littering Nigerian ports. The group added that these containers pose health risks and environmental pollution to the country.
The Head of Research at SEREC, Mr Eugene Nweke, disclosed this in a document obtained by The PUNCH. The document was titled ‘Unravelling the underlying reasons empty containers are dumped, littering the Nigerian shipping and port space’.
He added that about 45 per cent of the containers circulating in the Nigerian shipping space fall under the classification of unseaworthy containers. “According to freight forwarders, an estimated 65,000 to 100,000 TEUs of empty containers are currently dumped and littering Nigerian ports, posing health risks and environmental pollution. Moreover, about 45 per cent of containers circulating in the Nigerian shipping space are reportedly rickety containers that fall under the classification of unseaworthy containers,” Nweke said.
According to Nweke, Nigerian freight forwarders have long complained about the practice of shipping lines discharging laden containers in Nigeria and then sailing back to origin ports with only a few export containers, “leaving behind over 97 per cent of empty containers”.
He lamented that the practice has been attributed to the cost implications of freight back empty containers, which has resulted in a significant backlog of empty containers in Nigerian ports.
Nweke stressed that the group conducted a review of freight forwarders’ claims “and discovered that the cost of freighting empty containers back to Europe, Asia, the US, and the Middle East from Nigeria varies greatly depending on several factors, including the point of loading, destination, carrier, and market fluctuations.”
In May, The PUNCH reported that the Terminal Manager of APM Terminals Apapa, Steen Knudsen, announced that the terminal has temporarily restricted the reception of additional empty containers until the existing stock is cleared by shipping lines.
In a statement, Knudsen stated this while responding to recent concerns surrounding the congestion of empty containers at its terminal, setting the record straight on the root causes of the situation and APMT’s efforts to resolve the issue promptly.
There have been insinuations suggesting that APMT Apapa is not receiving empty containers, allegedly contributing to yard congestion. However, the terminal operator stated that managing empty container evacuation into the terminal and subsequent shipment onto vessels is the exclusive responsibility of shipping lines, which own and control all containers.
Also, Nigerian shippers have decried soaring port charges and exchange rate fluctuations, among others, adding that the charges are driving the cost of doing business in Nigeria to unsustainable levels. This is even as they said that these challenges pose serious challenges to cargo clearance at the ports.
The former President of the Shippers Association, Lagos State, Jonathan Nicol, stated this in a chat with journalists earlier this year in Lagos. He added that the situation has made it difficult for them to clear their goods or repay loans sourced from banks.
“You take a loan of N50m to import goods, but by the time your cargo gets here, you spend over N150m just to clear it. Where do you find the money to repay the bank?” he queried.
In March, the Shipping Association of Nigeria explained that the high port charges were making Nigerian ports uncompetitive with customers and pushing cargoes to neighbouring countries. The chairman of SAN, Mrs Boma Alabi, made this known during a press conference held over the weekend at the Lagos Yacht Club in Victoria Island.
She added that the cost of doing business in Nigerian ports is working against the country, as smaller countries are now wresting cargo from Nigeria. Alabi, who is also the president of the Shipping, Shipping Agencies, Clearing, and Forwarding Employers Association, averred that the ports have become uncompetitive because of the several charges customers are made to pay as compared to neighbouring ports like Cotonou and Lome, which collect relatively low charges.
These are some of the challenges the agency is facing, though some of them are gradually being addressed.
However, following the performance of the NPA boss, Dantsoho, in less than two years since assuming office as the NPA MD, stakeholders, including Dangote Industries Limited and truckers, commended his numerous initiatives, stressing that the Marine and Blue Economy sector will witness expansion.
Speaking recently during a courtesy call to the NPA headquarters in Lagos, President of DIL, Aliko Dangote, explained that as the biggest customer of the NPA, it is important that the interaction between NPA and DIL is sustained.
“We are here to thank the NPA for doing a great job because as we speak today, we are the biggest or largest customer of the NPA. I think this kind of interaction between us and them is very, very important for the growth of the industry. So, we discussed quite a lot of issues.
“We also discussed issues of how to deepen the Marine and Blue Economy of the nation. And we have agreed to actually work together for the benefit of Nigeria. The size of our operation at Lekki alone is going to be almost 240 ships of crude, with each ship carrying one million crude. And then we’ll have products that will now amount to over 600 ships in a year.
“Then we also have our fertilizer operation, which will be loading almost eight ships. This is an operation that has never, ever been seen in the country. So, it’s a major challenge. But with the leadership of the NPA, we are very, very comfortable that they’ll be able to deliver,” Dangote said.
Meanwhile, truckers in Rivers State commended the agency for opening the completed section of ‘Road D’ at the Federal Ocean Terminal, Onne Port, Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers State.
The Haulage and District Chairman, Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, Eastern Ports, Mr Adolphus Ugwu, applauded NPA and the Onne Multipurpose Terminal for the development.
“For this reason, truckers commend NPA for a job well done. As drivers, we are also commending Onne Multi-Purpose Terminal for their effort in the opening of the completed portion of Road D,” Ugwu stated.
Last week, the Secretary-General of the Association of Maritime Truck Owners, Mohamed Sani-Bala, declared a vote of confidence in the electronic call-up system introduced by the NPA to tackle gridlock on the Apapa and Tin-Can port access roads.
Sani-Bala, who stated this after a peaceful rally in Apapa, applauded the NPA for the initiative that has brought sanity to the port access roads. He stated further that the impact of eliminating gridlock and improving traffic flow along logistics corridors has made import and export cargoes evacuated seamlessly.
“On behalf of the trucking community, we wish to use this peaceful rally as a platform to express our profound gratitude to the management of NPA for the deployment of the Eto Call-Up System and to also appreciate the Lagos State Government for its vital role in enforcing compliance with the Standard Operating Procedures that underpin the system,” he said.
The clearing agent, John Eji, commended the NPA for addressing the issue of traffic along the port access roads. “At least some of us can freely drive from our house, where I live at Ejigbo, to Apapa; for that alone I commend the NPA,” Eji said.
