Akinwunmi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has said that Nigeria should be transforming the port, not using it as a military zone.
The AfDB boss said this at the CEO forum hosted by Businessday on the 13th of June 2023, at Eko Hotel.
“We should not be decongesting port, we should be transforming port, it starts with removing bottlenecks and removing unnecessary agencies at the port, high transaction cost and illegal taxes which of course as doesn’t go into the pocket of the right agencies,” Adesina said.
The poor state of port and transport cost Nigeria $35,000 to export 100 tons while in Ghana, it cost $4000.
He noted that the AFCTA has a collective GDP of $23.3 trillion to drive industrialization and Nigeria can benefit from free trade thereby boosting the inflow of the private sector into the economy.
“Nigeria can unlock its industrial manufacturing capacity by participating in duty-free export within the zone,” Adesina said.
