Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority, Mohammed Bello-Koko

Efforts of the Nigerian Ports Authority NPA in eliminating the challenges associated with the processing of non-oil exports in Nigeria are beginning to yield results as a total of 3.5 million metric tonnes of export trade were facilitated through the nation’s seaports in the first six months of 2023 (January- June).  

Speaking during a panel session on the export of non-oil products at the 2023 Zenith Bank International Trade Seminar held Tuesday in Lagos, Managing Director of NPA, Mohammed Bello-Koko, said that NPA has been recording growth in non-oil export since 2019.

Available statistics show that the seaports recorded about 2.8 million metric tonnes of non-oil exports in 2019, which increased to 3.8 million metric tonnes in 2020. The non-oil export volumes further grew in 2021 to 3.89 million metric tonnes, and even more exponentially by over 5.1 million metric tonnes in 2022. 

According to the MD, the NPA is working closely with other government agencies such as the Nigeria Customs Service, Nigerian Shippers’ Council and Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency NIMASA, to ensure that imports and exports are cleared out of the ports faster.

“We need the Customs to reduce the time it takes to scan and inspect cargo because the faster it takes, the earlier the importers and exporters take their goods,” he said.

Bello-Koko said the collaboration with the Nigeria Customs Service helped the NPA in achieving the feat as he expressed optimism that the agency will achieve more than it attained in previous years.

“NPA’s responsibility is to handle the logistics issue as it relates to the delivery of cargo to seaports, reviewing the cargo and also ensuring that it is loaded 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.

“So, 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 said.

He said the NPA also created time belts for exports; created a lane for export to improve the speed of moving export to the port and the Lagos State Government has been working with them to enforce traffic regulations, especially along the port corridors, which helped to reduce congestion.

He added that the efforts really yielded results and facilitated the growth of exports leaving Nigerian ports.

“Don’t forget that shipping activities actually 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 added.

Meanwhile, Executive Director/CEO of the Nigeria Export Promotion Council NEPC, Ezra Yakusak, who confirmed the growth in non-oil export trade, said Nigeria had a non-oil export performance of $4.8 billion in 2022, which is the largest since the creation of NEPC in 1976.

“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 per cent in the export of manufactured products, meaning that Nigerian export is changing from being mostly raw materials to becoming processed or manufactured products,” he said.

On his part, acting Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, who was represented by the Customs Area Controller of Lilypond Export Command, Mohammed Babandede, said Customs has created a one-stop-shop that removes all delays that lead to rejection of Nigerian exports in the international markets.

“By doing so, we have eliminated rejection and return of our cargo and also have reduced the cost of doing export business. We have also reduced intervention by other agencies and have also reduced the pilfering of containers. The NPA has dedicated routes these non-oil export consignments can follow out of the seaports,” he said.