Nigeria paced for bigger slice of booming East–West Africa trade – Terminal operators

Nigeria is in a strong position to benefit from the rapid growth in trade between East and West Africa, according to Frederik Klinke, chief executive officer of APM Terminals, Nigeria’s largest terminal operator.

Klinke, while speaking at the Blue Economy Investment Summit in Abuja, said trade along the East–West Africa corridor grew by more than 30 percent in 2025, making it the fastest-expanding container trade route globally.

He said that Nigeria is well placed to capture a significant share of this growth if it continues to improve its ports and logistics systems.

Klinke pointed to data from the Nigerian Ports Authority’s third quarter 2025 report which showed that export container volumes rose tenfold. He tried to link the increase to policy reforms and operational improvements, particularly the rollout of the National Single Window, which is designed to simplify import and export processes and cut cargo clearance time from several weeks to about 48 hours.

Read also: Export containers at Nigeria’s ports surge tenfold as cargo hits 33.5m tonnes in Q3

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But he warned that global pressures could still affect Nigeria’s progress if reforms are not sustained.

The CEO said APM Terminals Nigeria has invested over $600 million in upgrading its operations at Nigeria’s ports to support the growth in exports.

Part of that investment set up a dedicated container freight station in Onne, created export lanes at Apapa Port and introducing a rail service to move cargo that runs three times a week between Apapa and Moniya in Ibadan.

Klinke added that Nigeria needs to continue improving its port systems to fully benefit from the growing trade corridor, asking for deeper port channels to handle larger vessels, better integration of digital systems and stronger transport links across road, rail and other networks.