Reason has been adduced as to why foreign goods brought into Nigeria are costlier than is obtained in other climes as studies indicate that duties paid on such goods at the nation’s ports are about 10 times higher than it is to move consignments from Ghana and South Africa ports.

This was the outcome of research carried out by SBM Intelligence. According to the research, it is 10 times costlier to move goods from the port in Apapa, Lagos than it is to move them from the ports in Ghana and South Africa.

Data compiled by SBM Intelligence showed that local transport from the port in Lagos costs an estimated $2,055.

This is compared to $285 spent in moving goods from the Tema port in Ghana and $208 from the Durban port in South Africa.

The analysis shows that the cost of moving containers from the Apapa port within the local environment is 10 times the cost required in moving containers from the Tema port in Ghana and Durban port in South Africa.

According to the report, shipping charges from European countries to Apapa port costs $374 compared to $321 at Tema port in Ghana and $247 at Durban port in South Africa.

Comparing terminal charges at the three ports, it was discovered that charges at Apapa are double those paid at Durban ports and almost double those paid at Tema ports.

Also, terminal charges in Apapa are $457 compared to $284 in Tema, Ghana and $180 at the Durban port.

However, the Apapa and Tincan Island ports, which are Nigeria’s busiest port terminal, have suffered severe traffic congestion for years and government efforts to resolve the problem have not yielded considerable results.

“SBM tracked shipments over a period of three months to three ports in Africa and came up with this average cost of first, shipping goods in from the EU,” the report read.

“The terminal charges that containers pay while they are in those ports, and the average cost of local transportation from the port to selected warehouses within the port cities.

“The costs for the Apapa Port in Lagos are by far the highest, five times higher than in Durban, South Africa, and three times higher than in Tema, Ghana.

“While each of the component parts of this dataset, shipping charges, terminal charges and local transport, are highest for Lagos, its local transport is10 times the cost in Lagos than in both Durban and Tema. That really makes Lagos an expensive place to do business in.”

Worried by the cut-throat charges at the Nigerian ports, the Manufacturing Association of Nigeria (MAN) recently said ‘it is more expensive to transport goods from Lagos to Kano than to import from China’.

One of the harshest news that jolted many within and without the country’s maritime industry recently, even though it was not totally unexpected, was the confirmation that Apapa Port, Lagos State, was no longer West Africa’s leading and busiest container port. That reputation now belongs to Lome Port in neighbouring Republic of Togo.

Data from Dynamar, a Dutch maritime intelligence and consulting firm revealed that Lome Port upstaged the Lagos facility largely as a result of wide-ranging implemented reforms, as well as container traffic.

Consequently, the port’s earnings have grown more than three-fold since 2013.

In contrast, things have not only stagnated at Apapa Port, which is Nigeria largest port, but are also slowly going from bad to worse, especially as the port is bogged down by inefficiency, corruption induced by red tape, and age-long bottlenecks, which have successfully paved the way for slow port operations, leading to perpetual congestion.

What is more worrisome in the emerging scenario is that loss of cargoes to ports in neighbouring countries may not come to an end anytime soon, as they continue to perfect top-notch policies in the competitive maritime region to continually lure importers from Nigeria and landlocked West African countries.

While Republic of Benin, Ghana, Togo, and Cote D’Ivoire are currently considering several steps to take to bolster their fortune, by way of attracting cargoes, particularly transit cargoes their way, Nigeria is the major loser and has been introducing some reforms and planning new ports developments at snail’s speed, and severely hampered by poor implementation strategies.

Statistics revealed that Cotonou Port, which is the closest to Nigeria, has been the highest beneficiary of the cargo challenge, with many Nigerian importers shipping their cargoes through it, largely as a result of several incentives and reduced tariff structure.

It is also from here that a lot of goods are being smuggled into the country.

The Port of Cotonou, which handles an annual freight volume of around 12 million tons, wants to grow further, but both the infrastructure and organisation are outdated.

Therefore, the country’s government decided to temporarily outsource the management of the port.

A study by the Ghana Shippers Authority shows that estimated total revenue of $24m accrued to the Ghanaian economy from some quantifiable services provided by various operators involved in the delivery of transit services in that same year.

Consequently, Ghana’s two institutions have resolved to find solutions to address key issues including new measures for transit tracking, transit process flow, transit vehicle registration, transit insurance requirements, licensing of Freight Forwarders for transit trade and the implementation of the concept of ‘First Port Duty Rule.’

The project is scheduled for completion in August 2019.

More than half of the work is already done, and the cost is estimated to be over $1.2b.

The port is one of the busiest in Sub Saharan Africa, serving landlocked countries like Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.

Every year, more than 20 million tons of goods transit through the port. This is set to grow after work is completed to widen and deepen the Vridi channel leading to the main port.

Meanwhile, Apapa Port and indeed Lagos ports have been dragged to present undeserved level, in the face of stiff competition by ports in smaller countries in the sub-region by deplorable port access roads, high cost of shipping and clearing cargoes, multiplicity of government agencies at the ports, and deficient scanners that lead to physical examination of cargoes among others.

Also, despite its enormous potential, stakeholders are aghast that apart from losing cargoes, Nigeria, which ought to be West Africa’s maritime hub, is at present not servicing any landlocked country in the sub-region.