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| Seaport in lagos |
Nigeria’s ports remain the nation’s economic arteries, channeling the bulk of international trade that fuels industry, generates revenue, and sustains employment. Yet persistent inefficiencies at Apapa and Tin Can Island Ports continue to impose heavy operational costs on businesses, inflate consumer prices, and erode the country’s attractiveness to investors.
On October 27, 2026, the Nigerian Ports Economic Regulatory Agency (NPERA) and the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) jointly called for a structured, multi-system coordination mechanism to tackle traffic congestion, prolonged cargo clearance, vessel delays, high demurrage and storage charges, and unpredictable logistics schedules.
The appeal came during the LCCI Freight Forwarders Trade Group Strategic Stakeholder’s Engagement in Lagos, themed “Optimising Port Traffic and Terminal Efficiency: Public-Private Solutions for Apapa and Tincan Island Ports.” Both organisations stressed that isolated fixes are insufficient.
Port performance depends on the seamless interaction of terminal operations, shipping services, truck movements, cargo examination, customs clearance, documentation, access roads, holding bays, warehousing, and multimodal evacuation via road, rail, and inland waterways. When any single link fails, the entire chain suffers.
Ports as Critical Economic Infrastructure
Dr Pius Akutah, Director-General of NPERA, underscored the strategic importance of the ports. They support international trade, industrial production, job creation, government revenue, and Nigeria’s competitiveness in regional and global markets.
Efficient ports lower logistics costs, speed goods to market, and strengthen business competitiveness. Inefficiency, by contrast, radiates outward: higher demurrage and storage fees raise the landed cost of imports, disrupt production schedules, increase working-capital needs, and ultimately push up prices for consumers while weakening the purchasing power of households.
Akutah noted that these challenges are not purely maritime. They require coordinated performance across interconnected systems. “Where one component fails to function effectively, the entire logistics chain can be affected,” he said.
The newly established NPERA—created by the Nigerian Ports Economic Regulatory Agency Act 2026, which transformed the former Nigerian Shippers’ Council into a dedicated economic regulator with stronger enforcement powers—has a clear mandate to promote transparency, fair competition, reasonable tariffs, service standards, and trade facilitation. The agency can now impose meaningful penalties (up to ₦20 million for corporate offenders) and is positioned to drive accountability that was previously limited.
This comes against a backdrop of mixed progress. The World Bank’s Container Port Performance Index 2025 ranked Tin Can Island Port 10th and Apapa (Lagos Port Complex) 12th among the world’s most improved container ports between 2020 and 2025, based on gains in vessel turnaround time and operational efficiency.
Scores improved substantially—Tin Can by 42 points and Apapa by 35 points—reflecting reforms including the Ètò electronic truck call-up system introduced in 2021. That system has processed millions of truck movements, cut average haulage costs significantly (by some estimates around 65 percent from pre-reform peaks), and reduced truck turnaround times from weeks to a few days in many cases.
Yet structural problems persist. Recent Time Release Studies at Tin Can Island have shown average clearance times of nearly five days for many imports, even when physical inspections take only hours, due to fragmented processes among agencies, documentation delays, and yard congestion.
Cargo dwell times still lag global best practices of three to five days in top-performing ports. Demurrage and storage charges continue to mount for importers when free periods expire, while truck queues, illegal parking, unauthorised checkpoints, and occasional extortion along corridors add further friction and cost.
Earlier estimates have put the annual economic drag from port inefficiencies in the trillions of naira, affecting manufacturers who rely on timely raw materials and intermediate goods, as well as exporters racing to meet international delivery deadlines.
Business Perspective: Costs That Cascade Through the Economy
LCCI President and Chairman of Council, Leye Kupoluyi, framed the issue in practical business terms. Inefficient ports disrupt production, inflate working capital requirements, and reduce productivity. Exporters lose competitiveness when reliable schedules cannot be guaranteed. These costs ultimately feed into higher prices, weaker consumer purchasing power, reduced competitiveness of Nigerian enterprises and products, and diminished investor appeal.
Kupoluyi called for concrete public-private solutions. Central to his proposals is a structured port corridor coordination mechanism that identifies bottlenecks, assigns clear responsibilities across agencies and operators, and tracks progress against measurable key performance indicators—cargo dwell time, vessel waiting time, and truck turnaround time.
He advocated tighter integration of the Ètò system with terminal appointment systems, delivery orders, and real-time cargo readiness data so that trucks arrive only when terminals can actually receive or release cargo. Government should expand properly managed truck parks and holding bays while rigorously enforcing rules against illegal parking, unauthorised checkpoints, extortion, and fraudulent call-up practices.
On the terminal side, Kupoluyi urged operators to invest in modern cargo-handling equipment, digital yard management systems, automated gates, and real-time cargo tracking to raise productivity. These recommendations align with broader modernisation efforts, including a reported £746 million UK Export Finance facility aimed at rehabilitating and automating Apapa and Tin Can Island ports to reduce turnaround and dwell times, improve equipment, and enhance environmental performance. Complementary plans for better rail links and inland logistics connections are also under discussion as ways to ease pressure on road corridors.
Broader Context and the Path Forward
Nigeria’s ports handle the majority of the country’s seaborne trade. Improvements in throughput have been recorded in recent years, yet volume growth without corresponding gains in efficiency and multimodal connectivity risks recreating congestion.
Neighbouring West African ports have advanced digital single-window systems and faster clearance, putting competitive pressure on Nigerian facilities. Lekki Deep Seaport offers additional capacity and deeper drafts, but Apapa and Tin Can remain dominant for many cargoes; their urban location creates inherent landside constraints that pure capacity expansion cannot fully solve.
The new regulatory framework under NPERA, combined with ongoing NPA modernisation and private investment in terminals and logistics technology, creates an opportunity for meaningful progress. Success will depend on sustained coordination rather than siloed initiatives: aligning customs, terminal operators, trucking systems, road and rail authorities, and regulators around shared performance targets; accelerating full digital integration; expanding holding infrastructure; and enforcing rules consistently.
For Nigerian manufacturers, importers, exporters, and consumers, the stakes are high. Lower, more predictable logistics costs would ease inflationary pressures, improve working-capital efficiency, strengthen non-oil export competitiveness, and support the broader goal of a more resilient and attractive economy. The joint message from NPERA and LCCI is clear: efficiency is not a sectoral concern but a national competitiveness imperative that requires coordinated public-private action across every link in the logistics chain.
Samuel O. Sulaimon is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Naijapiz. He covers Global, News, Sports, Finance, Faiths, Education, Politics and Technology.
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