A total of 1,851 vessels visited Nigerian seaports with about 707,985 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) of containers and 33,895,784 metric tons of cargo throughputs in the first half of 2023, according to the half-year report of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
The vessels had a combined Gross Registered Tonnage (GRT) of 57,870,083, and they facilitated international trade in Nigeria by bringing imports and taking out export within the period under review.
This represents a 16.6 percent drop when compared to 849,175 TEUs of containers brought into the country by 1,992 ships with an aggregate gross registered tonnage of 60.2 million tons that were received in the country within the same period in 2022.
The report, which was signed by Mohammed Bello-Koko, managing director of the NPA, said Nigerian Ports Authority also generated over N191.4 billion in revenue from its operations within the period under review.
Bello-Koko said in the report that the NPA has a projection to generate over 500 billion in revenue by year-end going by the recurrent trend of shipping volumes, which is expected to peak from July to December.
The NPA also remitted over N55.7 billion to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) of the Federation.
Giving insight into the report, Bello-Koko said that given the existential economic headwinds at the micro and macro levels, the operational statistics for the first six months were reassuring.
He said the remittances to the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federal Government are commendable as the authority intends to up it as revenue increases in the second half of the year.
“The smart policy thrust of the new administration which is already throwing up new vistas of growth further lends credence to the feasibility of our projections and gives fillip to our organisational initiatives,” he said.
Bello-Koko added that the operations of Lekki Deep Seaport, the expected restoration of the service boat management contract, digitalisation, and intensified tightening of collection mechanisms have given the NPA confidence that it will meet and exceed the revenue projections.
Also, a key indicator of port efficiency which is the average turnaround time of vessels, stood at 5.16 days, representing an improvement.
“The remaining half of the year 2023 will be focused on finalising the financing arrangements for our port rehabilitation drive, the conclusion of all digitalisations geared towards the improvement of efficiency and collaboration with landlocked neighbouring countries like Niger and Chad with whom we have already opened discussions to patronise our ports as a hub for transshipment cargo,” Bello-Koko explained.
He promised the NPA would continue to also improve service delivery, block avenues of income leakages, curb waste and tighten collection mechanisms in a bid to surpass stakeholders’ expectations and support the national economy.
Reacting to the report, Emma Nwabunwanne said he was not surprised that the volume of business at the port slowed owing to the naira redesign policy that slowed economic activities in the first quarter of the year.
He also blamed the continuous rise in FX rates and difficulty in accessing FX as issues that contributed to a decline in the volume.
