Nigeria has moved up to rank 88 places out of 139 countries in the latest Logistics Performance Index (LPI) released by the World Bank.
Despite being ranked among countries with logistics constraints, Africa’s most populous nation also recorded improvement over some of its peers like Ghana which ranked 97, Togo 97, Liberia 115, Burkina Faso 123 and The Gambia 123 while Cameron ranked 134 places, judging by its ranking of over 130 places in the last 2018 LPI.
Other African countries, including South Africa 19; Egypt 57 and Benin Republic 66 were ranked among nations with high LPI.
According to the World Bank, Nigeria scored 88 in the LPI; customs 90; infrastructure 89; international shipment 102; logistics competence and equality 119; timelines 76, and tracking and tracing 87.
Ghana ranked 97 in LPI; customs 65; infrastructure 89; international shipment 111; logistics competence and equality 103; timelines 109 and tracking and tracing 129.
Togo ranked 97 in LPI; customs 101; infrastructure 108; international shipment 57; logistics competence and equality 110; timelines 101; tracking and Tracing 117.
Cameron ranked 134 in LPI; customs 120; Infrastructure 125; international shipment 128; logistics competence and equality 133; timelines 138, tracking and tracing 136.
The World Bank pointed out the need for nations that ranked as bottom performers to improve their customs operations and infrastructure.
“The performance of customs and border agencies, as well as the quality of trade and transport-related infrastructure, is particularly weak in the lowest-performing countries.
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“These countries, many of them in the Middle East and North Africa and in sub-Saharan Africa, experience much longer delays than advanced and emerging economies and many middle-income countries. On average, export delays are of the same magnitude as import delays but for different reasons; export delays are tied more to the quality of service or to economies of scale,” the LPI report said.
It further said that trade experiences much more dispersion in delays when not moving at ports, airports, or multimodal facilities than when moving on ships, adding that a lot of time is spent in transit.
It, however, called for policies targeting driving investment in port productivity or modernising customs to improve port reliability in poorly ranked nations.
The report also recommended the deployment of new technologies, such as supply chain visibility platforms.
The World Bank said that countries in the bottom performance quintile still needed core reforms and modernisation, especially in soft infrastructure such as customs, border management and operational procedures in ports.
“Investments in hard transport infrastructure are also needed—but they must be aligned with the reforms and investments in soft infrastructure to improve logistics performance,” it added.
It said the speed of trade can be boosted by combining policy interventions in the LPI pillars related to infrastructure, customs, logistics competence, and tracking and tracing. There should be a combination of reforms to enhance port productivity; including private sector participation in terminal operations could improve the situation in outlier countries.
“Implementing electronic port community systems also improves performance by facilitating the flow of information between the numerous participants in port logistics. Many underperforming countries have yet to modernise customs and border agencies with a focus on automation, risk management, and integrity,” it explained.
The World Bank, however, said that since the 2018 LPI, global logistics networks have experienced unprecedented disruptions, and the operational environment in logistics has grown more complex. Yet logistics performance in 2022, as measured by LPI scores for the 139 countries covered, remained stable or improved slightly. At the same time, the gap between the top and bottom performers widened slightly, as measured by average LPI scores by quintile.
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