Apapa Gridlock Undoing Economic Competitiveness
In its recent annual report, the World Economic Forum (WEF) ranked Nigeria 115 out of 140 countries in its 2018 Global Competitiveness Index. The WEF report noted that Nigeria moved 10 places upward from its 2017/2018 ranking of 125 out of 137 countries. According to the report, Nigeria’s ranking improved in four of 12 ranking pillars, namely infrastructure, health, business dynamism and innovation capability. It, however, pointed out that the country would require improvement in the areas of institutions, ICT adoption, macroeconomic environment, skill, market size among others. One compelling area that holds the key to the country’s economy but which the WEF failed to mention is in massive port reforms.
It is estimated that over N803m is lost daily as a result of port congestion and a survey conducted by a private consultancy firm, Akintola Williams Deloitte revealed that the efficiency at the nation’s seaports had earlier saved the Nigerian economy an estimated $800 million annually in congestion fees alone.
How could a country loss such quantum of money daily and still expect to remain competitive on the global stage? What about the impact on its economy and how did we get to this sorry state?
In the mid- 80s before General Ibrahim Babangida took over government in a military coup and went ahead to introduce his Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), as a young man moonlighting in Apapa industrial area to raise funds for higher education, the whole stretch of Creek Road up to the main Apapa Port gate was a beehive of activities.
The companies that were maintaining the engines of production in Apapa were Cadbury, manufacturer of Trebor sweets, peppermint, a pharmaceutical company was next, SCOA Motors, Niger Biscuit, Michelin, SGBN, Ibru Fisheries, Elf right up to the Federated Motors Incorporated (FMI) manufacturers of American brand trucks, Dizengoff W.A, Brian Munroe, SCOA Assembly which assembled 404 pickup vehicles and then PKN, manufacturers of glass products.
On Burma road were First Bank, Tarpaulin Industries, Lipton Tea, Union Bank, Borini Prono, CAP and several others that relied mostly on the petrodollars to import raw materials for their factories. Yet, Apapa roads were free, the ports were accessible and the cost of doing business was low, prices of goods and services affordable and the economy was stable.
Today, Apapa is a ghost of its former past, not only has it lost it productive capacity, virtually all the companies mentioned above have left for greener pastures. In their places, we now have tank farms, gas plants, tankers and trailers occupying every imaginable space and crippling movement to a halt.
Apart from ships waiting for months to berth and offload cargoes, importers are forced to pay huge sums in demurrage, transport cost and several other charges imposed by duplicitous agencies. In Apapa ports, it now takes over 30 days to clear a container and importers have to go through excruciating pains to clear their goods from the port.
Many industry operators complain seriously about lack of access to the ports because of bad roads, but that is just one side of the story. It has been discovered that apart from lack of access road which luckily Dangote Group is already addressing, most of the port operators are said to have converted the holding bays for trucks inside the ports to warehouses for containers thereby forcing the trucks on the roads.
It is a pity that each successive government has failed to creatively find ways to bring succour to Apapa basically because it has adopted the same approach to tackle an aged long problem. Unfortunately, the present administration has not shown a strong political will to address Apapa’s intractable traffic problems by wielding the big stick on these companies owned by such sacred cows like retired generals, highly