The Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Dr Abubakar Dantsoho, says exports from Nigeria have increased by over 25 percent in the last two years.
He tied the growth to policies of the Federal Government.
Dantsoho spoke at the Annual World Ports Conference in London, organised by the International Association of Ports and Harbours.
He said Nigeria’s population gives it an immense advantage among peers in West and Central Africa.
He added that recent reforms have also massively increased cargo throughput.
He said the NPA has everything in place to sustain the growth in exports adding that it was the reason it set up the Export Processing Terminal.
“We have got about four of those in Nigeria where we collaborate with the terminal operators, with the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), and other agencies that have a stake. So that everything regarding the processing of the cargo for export is done locally, so that by the time it is exported out of Nigeria, there will not be issues regarding standards,” he added.
According to him, Nigeria is better placed today to take advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AFCTA) as a result of the reforms of the present administration.
“Nigeria’s economy is very strong now because of our president’s reforms, which everyone can testify is attracting investors to the country. So because of that, we are leading other African countries to ensure that we export or trade within ourselves in a free and fair manner. So between, for example, Nigeria and Morocco, there’s a lot of exchange of idea because Morocco is now a hub for manufacturing of electric cars and other smaller cars,” he added.
The reforms, he added, was the reason why Nigeria had two ports in the top 20 in the latest global ports ranking by the World Bank.
The NPA boss stated: “This is the result of hard work and efficiency, because we are collaborating efficiently. And so we have identified that this is getting us a lot of good results. It’s result-oriented, it’s technology-based. So we are going to continue to consolidate on the relationship we have with major players in Morocco and South Africa.”
He said revenues from ports across Nigeria have quadrupled as a result of the reforms.
He added: “We have experienced a lot of increase in volumes and revenue that has been generated by the ports across Nigeria, and it is strictly because of the collaboration between us and other countries. As a matter of fact, the efficiency in the ports in Nigeria is far better now than those of other West African countries.
“I am saying this because as the president of Association of Ports in West and Central Africa, we have the same dashboard to know the performance of other ports in the regions. There has also been improvement in Tanzania and Kenya. So it’s a very good feeling that this collaboration is getting us the desired results and we have to consolidate and also make sure that we progress on time so that we don’t allow the detraction to begin to slow us down.”
