Determined to provide information that would serve as a guide to making business decisions, the African Centre for Supply Chain (ACSC) has launched the 2021 edition of the Nigerian Logistics and Supply Chain Industry Report.
The report, which is the fifth edition, focuses on an appraisal of the post-Covid-19 logistics and supply chain management and survival strategies for businesses in Nigeria.
Giving an overview of the report during the public presentation in Lagos recently with the theme, ‘Supply Chain-Key to AfCFTA Success’, Obiora Madu, director-general of the African Centre for Supply Chain, said the 2020 edition of the report concentrated on the impact of Covid-19 on the entire supply chain system, but the 2021 edition started by reviewing the post-Covid-19 logistics and supply chain management and strategies for survival.
According to him, the report also talked about African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), which is the buzzword around.
“The report highlighted what AfCFTA is going to achieve and even how far Nigeria has gone with its implementation. The data for four previous reports were also reviewed to show whether Nigeria has progressed in issues like risk management, use of technology, supply chain management strategies and others. The questionnaire that generated the data is also attached to the report. There are also some raw data that is also available in the report,” Madu said.
While noting that this edition of the Nigerian Logistics and Supply Chain Industry Report is obviously the best out of the five that have been published so far, he said the report can enable industry operators to make decisions concerning their businesses and investments.
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“We are in the days of big data and that is why analytics is critical. Otherwise, people will be swimming inside information and would not be able to take decisions. The report has processed the information and brought out the data that are important for businesses to make decisions,” he said.
Citing an example, Madu said that if an investor or a business owner is in the business of warehousing, he or she would look at the statistics regarding warehousing business in Nigeria to get the information needed.
“This is why we have foreigners and other investors who want to start a business in Nigeria demanding a copy of the Nigerian Logistics and Supply Chain Industry Report because it guides them to understand the terrain better. It will also help policymakers but the concern is if they are interested in what the data says,” he further said.
Madu, who noted that logistics and supply chain are critical to economic growth, said Nigeria is not competitive due to a lack of adequate hard and soft infrastructure to move commodities and goods from their places of production to markets where they are needed.
Madu said that Nigeria is currently losing huge sums annually to the absence of adequate investment in cold-chain logistics.
Francis Anatogu, special adviser to the President on public affairs, who was the keynote speaker, said the global supply chain has been disrupted in recent years by the outbreak of Covid-19, the Russia-Ukraine war and nationalistic trade policies.
Anatogu, who doubles as the secretary of the National Action Committee on AfCFTA, said that trade facilitation is critical to growing trade in Africa.
He added that there is a need to simplify the import and export processes by using automation at the ports and also automating the regulatory compliance process.
The highlight of the event was the investiture of six fellows, and the induction of about 24 new members, three associate members and two student members into the ACSC.
