The Nigerian Ports Authority NPA reported that in the first half of this year, it facilitated 3.5 million metric tonnes of export trade through the seaports notwithstanding the worldwide market’s decline of Nigeria’s agricultural exports.
The National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has issued a warning that over 70% of Nigeria’s agricultural items exported outside of the country face decline, leading to substantial financial losses for exporters and the economy. This news comes at the same time as that warning.
According to the agency, bottlenecks encountered by trucks transporting export containers from the warehouses to the ports, which include delays, are to blame for the poor export trade facilitation at the harbor.
Delays in cargo processing and clearance by agencies at the ports are another source of congestion.
During a panel discussion on the export of non-oil products at the 2023 Zenith Bank International Trade Seminar in Lagos, Mohammed Bello-Koko, the managing director of the NPA, highlighted that the organization collaborates closely with other governmental agencies like Customs, the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to ensure swift clearance of imports and exports.
According to him, customs should expedite the scanning and look into of cargo in order to allow importers and exporters to quickly collect their items. He claims that NPA has seen an increase in exports at the ports from around 2.8 million metric tonnes to 3.8 million metric tonnes since 2019.
According to him, export volume increased to 3.79 million metric tons in 2021 and to more than 5.1 million metric tons in 2022.
Bello-Koko expressed confidence that the NPA will surpass its accomplishments from prior years and said that the NCS’s partnership with the NPA contributed to the agency’s success.
“NPA is responsible for managing logistics related to cargo delivery to ports, reviewing the cargo, and ensuring its loading for the voyage.” We encouraged the terminal operators to create hinterland aggregation points and dedicated spaces for export within the port terminals, but we need to realise that the ports are very small and therefore there are capacity issues.”
“What we did was to create export processing terminals and the export processing terminals are one-stop shops where you consolidate, test, weigh, and pack it and then go straight into the ports. What the customs did for us is to create an export command. This means there are individuals responsible for all export problems that you can relate with,” he added.
He claimed that in order to increase the speed at which exports were transported to the port, the NPA also built export time belts and a lane.
The NPA leader claimed that the Lagos State Government had been Providing assistance with them to enforce traffic laws, particularly in the port corridors, which has help in easing congestion.
He continued by saying that the initiatives had paid off and had gone up the amount of exports leaving Nigerian ports.
“Don’t forget that shipping activities pick from the middle of the year, so you can perceive that we are going to achieve more than what we got last year,” he stated.
Nigeria’s non-oil export performance in 2022, which was $4.8 billion, was the highest since the establishment of NEPC in 1976, according to Ezra Yakusak, Executive Director of the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC), confirming the expansion of export commerce.
“We exported 214 products which means that Nigeria has huge potential. About 1,122 companies exported to 122 countries. Last year, there was an increase of about 39.6 percent in the export of manufactured products, meaning that Nigerian export is changing from being mostly raw materials to becoming processed or manufactured products,” he added.
Adewale Adeniyi, acting Comptroller General of Customs, said the agency has established a one-stop shop that eliminates any delays that result in the rejection of Nigeria Agricultural export on global markets.
