Digitalisation is pushing the maritime industry beyond its traditional limits and it provides many new opportunities that enhances productivity, efficiency, sustainability of shipping and logistics.
The maritime industry is a very important sector of the Nigerian economy and as an oil producing and exporting country, as well as a consumer nation, Nigeria depends largely on foreign goods which are mostly imported through the sea ports.
Developments and experience across major ports around the world have shown how fast digital innovations can shape the modernisation of ports and there is urgent need for us to work towards achieving competitive advantages in the transformation of our ports.
Nigeria is blessed with abundant natural resources, especially crude oil. Crude oil accounts for over 70 percent of our earnings. Exports including cocoa, rubber, palm oil, peanuts and others are responsible for 18 percent of our nations GDP and transporting goods by sea remains the most common way to trade globally. But in Nigeria and Africa, cargo spends abnormally long time in ports before it is moved inland, presenting a serious obstacle to the successful integration of the Nigerian and sub-Saharan economies in worldwide trade networks. Most of the challenges within our ports are caused by the lack of modern digital technology system available in our ports.
The concept of smart ports, for instance, aims to adopt modern information technologies system to enable better planning and management of the industry between different ports. One of the strongest facilitators across all our ports that will accelerate higher productivity is the digitalisation of all our ports, investments in technology and co-operations for promoting information sharing, better coordination and collaboration, which is a very important strategy for our ports to stay competitive, attract shippers and be more viable.
There is urgent need for our policy makers to start working on strategies which will put in place accessible and reliable technologies that will increase the provision of ship/shore interface, maritime intermodal interface, provision of modern facilities for berthing, faster anchoring of ships, modern equipment for the transfer of goods and passengers from ships, faster support services for cargoes, passengers, ships and a base for industrial development centred around the activities of the port, freight and movement of goods.
Be it intra- and inter-organisational activities it is necessary to foster the adoption and use of modern innovative digital technologies to optimise and maximise efficiency in our ports.
The high costs of shipping goods to Nigeria does not correlate with the distance because shipping goods from New York to Nigeria is nearly double the cost of shipping to South Africa even though Nigeria is closer by nautical miles to New York compared to South Africa.
Despite Nigeria being the largest economy in Africa with an estimated population of 200 million people and a GDP of $376.284 billion, few of our ports are well digitalised. Few are connected with the latest information technology systems that meet global standards. Putting this in place will help fast track and facilitate the movement of goods and freights across our ports.
Looking at the above numbers there are certainly strong indications that we have all the potential to at least triple productivity of our ports. Instead shippers are referring their goods to other neighbouring ports with smaller economies, preferring such ports as Cotonou, Togo and Ghana.
The high cost of shipping goods to Nigeria is tied up in entrenched inefficiencies within the transportation industry and the local ports, and improving efficiency in the system can be achieved through total digitalisation of the ports and maritime systems. Improvements would also have the potential to reduce the number of containers being moved on our roads. If we increase the number of containers being transported by train and inland shipping it will cause modal shift and we can link more easily to modern ports all over the world.
The easier you make it to book a container on a train or inland shipping vessel, the faster it is to achieve this complex modal shift. Thus, the maritime sector holds the key to the country’s growth and development and to perfectly unlock its potential, we must find ways to implement some of the recommendations and programmes that have strong capacity to boost the nation’s economy and make our ports globally competitive to be one of the best ports in the world.
Shipping goods to Nigeria by sea from the US currently leaves a big hole in the pocket of the shipper. The cost of shipping both 20-foot and 40-foot containers to Lagos ports from New York is the most expensive globally. The urgent need to achieve competitive edge calls for a large amount of information systems and modern technology system needs to be adopted in our port operations, this will enable more transactions to be carried out electronically and will increase efficiency and productivity. If we are determined and serious, we must put in place the right structures that will attract shippers, importers and exporters to our nation’s ports.
There is a recently launched online booking portal for container transport that uses algorithms within the Port of Rotterdam to make a direct match between supply and demand in the market. Algorithms are sets of calculations in problem-solving processes and they are present throughout today’s maritime world. Fuel and propulsion optimisation, fleet management, shipping route optimisation and vessel design are just a few examples.
The speedy growth of our nations port industry calls for urgent steps to embrace the latest digital technology systems to run and manage the ports because it will create a very huge impact that will help grow the industry, it also has the potential to open the doors for greater efficiency and help maximize output. . It also has the potential to strengthen direct relationships with end customers, helps reduce costs, facilitates the strategy of creating new revenue generation streams, it enables and enhances the facilitation of the operations of a better port system.
Festus Okotie
