Nigeria controls 70 per cent of cargo traffic of West and Central Africa, the chairman Nigerian Ports Consultative Council (NPCC), Chief Kunle Folarin, has stated.
Folarin spoke in Lagos at the weekend during the 3rd Annual Maritime Conference in honour of Dr Taiwo Afolabi, the Chief Executive and Vice Chairman, Sifax Group.
According to the maritime economist, the percentage is far from the formal trade alone and will certainly be bigger if we consider the informal trade aspects of cargo movements.
He said that the traffic into Nigeria by latest data was over 5,307 ships per annum.
“The potential is certainly bigger when we consider the capacity of cargo traffic to Nigeria’s landlocked neighbours such as Niger Republic and Chad.
“In real terms, over 85 per cent of all the goods and services that entered Nigeria came through the seaports.
“The current aggregate value exceeds $15 billion dollars a year through normal imports.
“Nigeria also imports over two million tonnes of non-oil cargo yearly.
“It is therefore, no doubt that the maritime sector’s performance is indeed a major contributor to the economy and must be given attention when discussing port costs and port charges.
He said that the port cost and charges reform policy of the federal government started in 1993 by the Federal Ministry of Finance apparently to address the issue of rising costs in the delivery of port services and several others.
The NPCC boss said that the port concessioning started in 2006 by transferring operations of public sector activities to private sector to improve productivity and achieve competiveness at the ports.
He said that there was need for port industry to be truly productive, competitive and earn a hub status in the region, adding that otherwise, Nigerian ports would continue to perform at best a little above average.
