Nigeria’s ports still battle colonial problems @65

In 1978, months after its opening, the Tin Can Island Port in Lagos was hailed as Nigeria’s most advanced seaport.

It was one of Nigeria’s biggest moves to revamp maritime trade post-independence–a N190 million “emergency” facility designed to avert a three-year Lagos port crisis that nearly sunk Nigeria’s economy.

G.G.A Ally, then chairman of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), described it as an “amazing technological feat,” with a 2,500-metre wharf with ten berths, 11.5-metre depth and quayside cranes, built in just 16 months.

Four decades later, in 2025, the structure is no longer impressive. Against Shanghai, Rotterdam, or even Lomé, with multiple terminals, deeper drafts and quays stretching beyond 10,000 metres, Tin Can looks dated.

Nigeria’s ports, designed for colonial-era trade, could not keep up with the global shift to containerisation.

“The vessels at that time were not as big,” said Temisan Omotseye, former director-general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency. “Before now, they were carrying 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 container TEUs. Now we’re having vessels carrying 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 TEUs. Naturally, our river depth cannot allow those kinds of vessels.”

Despite promises from successive governments, the port that took 16 months to build has taken about five decades to renovate. Congestion, the same problem Tin Can was meant to solve, has returned, eroding the profits of international traders.

Nigeria realised it needed some help. In 2006, the Obasanjo administration introduced a concession model, leaving infrastructure with the NPA but handing operations to private companies.

It was meant to boost efficiency, but results have been uneven.

In 2015, during a performance review of the Nigerian Ports, Vicky Hasstrup, the chairman of the Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria, pointed out some of the successes and failures of the port reform.

Vicky Hasstrup, head of the Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria, told a 2015 review that while the reform had increased productivity due to strict monitoring of labour, control of extortion and reduction of damages to cargo, it had led to weaker vessel security and longer customs delays.

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There were immediate results of the relinquishing. By 2009, APM Terminals, the country’s biggest operator, had installed four Rubber Tyred Gantry (RTG) cranes worth $7 million in Apapa, tripling its capacity.

“Private operators, within their capacity, have been able to improve on the facilities left by Nigerian port authorities,” Sulaiman Ayokunle, a clearing agent since the 1990s told BusinessDay. “But remember also that they are only limited to their apron and the operational base of the port, while the port corridors still belong to port authorities.”

Most leases, initially set at 10 years, have been extended. Some now run to 2031. But Omotseye urged caution. “Government needs a clear-cut analysis before renewal. We shouldn’t just extend concessions.”

The landlord model was a magnet for foreign shipping lines and terminal operators but critics say foreign operators prioritise profit over national goals.

“We hear the shipping lines are declaring major profits, but much of that trickles out of the Nigerian economy,” Omotseye said.

The collapse of the Nigerian National Shipping Line in 1995, after years of corruption and mismanagement, compounded the problem. At its peak, the state carrier operated 24 vessels and trained generations of seafarers.

But its liquidation ceded the market to foreign carriers, along with an estimated $6 billion in freight profits.

“The shipping companies are the ones that are bringing the consignment, using their vessels. But some of them still remain docile. Sometimes you see where they put our members, to operate during the releasing of cargoes, like cubicles. But we shall never stop talking to them to improve on their services. It’s work in progress. We have not gotten to where we’re supposed to be” Ayokunle told BusinessDay.

One major goal was to improve port performance by reducing vessel waiting times and cargo dwell times, which were previously among the worst in the world. But progress has been slow.

The World Bank’s container port performance index 2023, which assesses performance based on vessel time in port, terminal capacity, cost, landside connectivity and services, or ship-to-shore interchange, ranked Nigeria’s ports among the worst globally, with Onne, Apapa and Tin Can all in the bottom 100 out of 405.

Tin Can, once a national showpiece, placed 354th.

“The ports might be working, but what about the infrastructure leading to them?” Omotseye asked. Tin Can, unlike Tema or Lomé, has no rail link and relies almost entirely on trucks.

“It’s work in progress. We have not gotten to where we’re supposed to be.”

There has been some late relief. In 2023, Nigeria opened its first deep seaport at Lekki, inside the Lagos Free Trade Zone. The $1.5 billion project, commissioned after two decades of delays, coincided with the Dangote refinery’s launch.

By 2024, cargo traffic surged from 71 million tonnes to 103 million tonnes, with Lekki alone recording a 2,160 percent rise in throughput, according to NPA figures.

This year, Adegboyega Oyetola, minister of marine and blue economy, said Nigeria could earn as much as $200 billion from the port over its 45-year concession period.

The Nigerian government also recently rolled out the Authorised Economic Operator to certify manufacturers, importers, exporters, carriers, consolidators, intermediaries, ports, and terminal operators under compliance with the World Customs Organisation or equivalent supply chain security standards.

“You can generate your debit notes online, make your payment online, even submit for your TDO online. Then the point of collection, you have to submit your original document, that is original bill of lading, that qualifies you as the authorized practitioner on that particular bill of lading. That is the importance and the advantage of technologies as introduced in the industry,” a clearing agent said.

Also, $700 million contract has been awarded by the Nigerian government to ITB Nigeria, a subsidiary of the Chagoury Group, for the renovation of the Tin Can and Apapa ports, the main commercial entry points into Nigeria’s economy, according to Africa Intelligence.

Yet experts warn against overconcentration on Lagos, while Calabar, Warri and Onne languish.

“We so focused on Lagos. Why are other ports concessioners not working as well as Lagos? These are things we need to look at,” Omotseye mentioned, reiterating a song that has been sung for decades.

As for Sunmola at the Ports Consultative Council, the maritime sector is in the “right direction,” but must solve its internal human management issues first.

“We need to have the right people at the right place at the right time, doing the right thing. Are we in shortage of resources? Absolutely no. We have the human capacity. But it’s the management,” he said.

“Our port is still the least in the West Coast. It’s all because of our internal politics, which is not helping the matter. I’m sure if we solve political decisions or politicking within the maritime domain, we could achieve a lot.”