The heavy, tightened gridlock at the Nigerian ports has become severe to the point that it allegedly costs more than $4,000 to truck a 40-ft container 20 kilometres from the ports to the mainland in recent times.
This is according to a news report by the Financial Times, tagged: “Nigeria’s port crisis: the $4,000 charge to carry goods across Lagos”, which revealed that the gridlock at the port terminals has become so devastating to the point that business entities pay more than $4,000 to truck a 40-ft container 20 kilometres to the country’s mainland recently, almost as much as it costs to ship it about 12,000 kilometres from China.
In this same vein, the impact of the gridlock extends beyond monetary costs, as freight companies and operators have to wait more than a month off the coast before they can off-load their goods in the port – roughly how long they spend in transit to Lagos from China.
The gridlock has become a long-running crisis at the Apapa and Tin Can Island ports, which are the main commercial entry points into Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy.
The issues at the terminals, however, can be attributed to the weak state of the country’s transport infrastructure as 90 percent of cargo go by road. However, the increased sea traffic since the closure of the country’s land borders to combat smuggling last year, along with the pandemic-induced economic slump and the recent unrest in the city have exacerbated the current issues at the port, as dozens of ships remain idle at sea, while hundreds of empty trucks sit in traffic for days or weeks, owing to the lack of automation.
Also, the port’s capacity has not increased since 1997, even as Lagos’s population has roughly tripled. With the port area even more crowded at the busy year-end period, the Seaport Terminal Operators Association estimates that the congestion costs the country $55m a day in lost economic activity.
