Critical Factors That Impact on the Efficiency of the Lagos Seaports

1.0 Introduction

Seaports play important roles in the development of trade as they serve as gateways and transit points through which imports and exports flow into and out of a country. As such, seaports are critical elements of global supply chains. Global trade enhances economic development, and many countries have taken advantage of this linkage by reducing or eliminating obstacles that slow down the movement of cargo through their seaports. Slow moving cargo often results in high dwell times that lower seaport efficiency, and negatively impacts on the cost of trade and the competitiveness of a country. Economic progress through global trade has been slow for many developing countries particularly in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) (Dean & Sebastia-Barriel 2004:310–320). The slow rate of trade growth could be attributed to the high cost of trade which appears to be driven by (amongst other factors) the inadequacies in transport infrastructure and regulatory issues (Economic Report on Africa 2004). Over the past two decades, whilst efforts have concentrated on improving port efficiency through the provision of seaport infrastructure, and the adoption of relatively modern port management models, such as the involvement of private sector port operators and customs reforms, relatively little effort has been exerted to understand the root causes of port inefficiency at the operational level, particularly in Sub-Saharan African countries. For instance, Table 1 shows that in the particular case of the Lagos seaports1 (concessioned to private port operators in 2006 with significant investments from the concessioners [Bureau of Public Enterprises {BPE} 2006, 2008]), only minimal improvements have been achieved regarding the ‘time to import and …