An average of 5000 trucks struggle to access Apapa ports on a daily basis through very bad and narrow roads with no railways to aid access. The time wasted on the roads and the resulting long turnaround times of the trucks is costing the country an annual loss of N6.7 trillion, a report released on Tuesday by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) says.
In a breakdown of the numbers, the report states that the biggest loss of N600 billion is from customs revenue, $10 billion (N3.6trn) in the non-oil export sector and N2.5 trillion in corporate earnings across various sectors on annual basis.
The Apapa and Tin Can ports were built to accommodate only 1,500 trucks daily but now have to deal with an influx of 5,000 trucks daily, according to the report leading to the massive congestion noticed at the entrance to ports daily and massive traffic it engineers across the country’s commercial capital, Lagos.
The LCCI report notes that 25 percent of cashew nuts exported from Lagos to Vietnam in 2017 went bad or were downgraded owing to delays at Lagos ports. Similarly, only 10 percent of cargoes are cleared within the set timeline of 48 hours now while the majority of cargoes take between five and 14 days to clear. The report notes that some cargoes take as many as 20 days to be cleared at the ports.
The clearance process is made worse by the number of government agencies at the ports which now 12 rather than eight, with each demanding inspection and associated fees.
To reduce the congestion at the Apapa ports which accounts for more than 90 percent of the country’s cargo imports and exports, experts advise that the government takes certain steps.
“There is a need to extend reform action plans of Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) to Eastern ports, air and land ports,” Babatunde Paul Ruwase, president of the LCCI, said at a press conference.
“The concessioning of Onitsha seaport should be finalised, while government should improve the security situation along and within the Warri port in order to ward off militants and touts. Stakeholders request that government should approve and publicise a bouquet of incentives to importers and exports that patronise ports outside Lagos,” Ruwase said.
Ruwase recommended enforcement of Executive Order on Single Examination, digitalising export process, reduction of enforcement agencies from 12 to eight, use of National Data Centre and passage of Enabling Port Reforms Bills by the National Assembly.
“Our desire is for Nigeria to get to the point where it can move containers and other items to and from ports by rail across the country,” he said.
Eke Ubiji, executive secretary, Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME), said Nigeria can never achieve its non-oil export target if ports reforms do not happen.
“How are we going to sign the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) if the goods cannot leave the ports?” Ubiki asked.
Ikenna Nwosu, council member of the LCCI and a player in the Nigerian ports, expressed fears that the government is not prepared for the expected increase in the inflow of goods and containers this quarter ahead of the Christmas festive season as nothing has been done to ease the access to the ports.
An exporter shipping out 1,700 tons of commodities per day when Apapa road was in good condition now manages to only ship between 100 and 250 tons, Tola Faseru, president of the National Cashew Association of Nigeria, told BusinessDay last year.
Manufacturing companies are also bleeding because imported raw materials take several more days to get to factories. Nigeria needs dollars to survive but exporters are facing challenges at ports, with non-oil exports falling below $1.6 billion in 2017, from $3 billion in 2013, going by data from the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC).
The National Action Plan 2.0 (NAP 2.0), PEBEC, in 2017, unveiled clear-cut plans to reform the ports, with government proposing joint examination of import cargo in Lagos led by the Nigeria Customs Service, as well as compliance with 48-hour SLA for automated scheduling process by pre-shipment inspection agents. But this is not happening.
ODINAKA ANUDU
