Weak Logistics, Trade Gaps Put Nigeria’s Opportunities At Risk

LAGOS – Experts have maintained that Nigeria’s participation in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) represents one of the most strategic economic op­portunities in the nation’s modern his­tory.

However, they warned that many factors including structural weaknesses in the country’s logistics, transport, and trade architecture, among others, cur­rently undermine the country’s compet­itiveness, export capacity, and regional trade leadership potential.

They also lampooned the government for not encouraging indigenous export­ers, accusing the Nigerian Export Pro­motion Council (NEPC) of inefficiency.

Dr. Eugene Nweke, a maritime expert, noted that despite large-scale investments in airport infrastructure development across states of the federation, the absence of dedicated air car­go infrastructure, sea–air/air– sea integration frameworks, and multimodal trade corridors have created systemic inefficiencies.

Nweke, Head of Research, Sea Empowerment and Research Center (SEREC), noted that these gaps result in high freight costs, prolonged transit times, weak regional connectivity, and reduced competitiveness for Nige­rian shippers under the AfCFTA regime, highlighting that cargo movements from Southern and Eastern Africa into Nigeria fre­quently require trans-shipment through Europe, the Middle East, Asia, or America due to the absence of direct African trade routes.

This structure, according to him, increases shipping costs, introduces double handling, extends voyage times, and struc­turally put Nigerian businesses within continental trade compe­tition disadvantages.

The SEREC Head of Research, who was also a former National President, National Associa­tion of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), in a comprehensive white paper policy framework for reposition­ing Nigeria as a regional and con­tinental logistics hub called for dedicated national air cargo air­ports, sea–air and air–sea cargo corridors, multimodal customs integration; cargo-first airport development philosophy, technol­ogy-driven logistics governance and regional route development incentives.

“Anchored in global best practices and adopted from Sin­gapore’s cargo hub evolution model, this policy framework aligns with the Renewed Hope Agenda and provides a roadmap for transforming Nigeria into a competitive AfCFTA trade and logistics powerhouse,” Nweke asserted.

He pointed out that trade com­petitiveness in the 21st century is no longer determined solely by production capacity but by the efficiency, speed, cost, reliability, and integration of logistics sys­tems, adding that nations that dominate global and regional trade flows are those that have built seamless multimodal in­frastructure connecting ports, airports, railways, inland freight terminals, and digital trade plat­forms.

According to him, Nigeria’s current logistics architecture remains fragmented, mode-iso­lated, and structurally inefficient.

“While investments in ports, roads, rail, and airports are ongo­ing, they are largely developed in isolation rather than as compo­nents of an integrated national trade logistics system.

“This white paper argues that Nigeria’s AfCFTA strategy can­not succeed without a deliberate national logistics transforma­tion policy that prioritises cargo infrastructure, multimodal inte­gration, and trade facilitation as strategic economic instruments”, he said.

Ismail Aniemu, another mar­itime expert, while speaking on the benefits eluding Nigeria in the area of export produce, and why they are lagging behind in inter­national market, said: “Packaging is very important, this is because there are some produce that are perishable. If you don’t package well, it will affect your product because you are in a competitive market.

“For instance, when I travelled to Ghana, I went to Takoradi, in Ghana, I saw where they were packaging yam to be exported. Thought I did not confirm what I heard, but there was a rumour that some of these yams being packaged for export in Ghana were from Nigeria. I saw them in a place called Akosombo. I was also told that some of those yams being packaged were not grown in Ghana. That some of the yams were gotten from Nigeria. So, you see that they have a way of pack­aging it and labelling it to meet international standard, which we are not doing in Nigeria. Yams were packaged in cartons and put in containers. We have to grow to that level. We need to package properly.

“There is the need for eco­nomic growth. Ghana is leading us in terms of cocoa export, now they are taking away yams from us. What is the population of Ghana? Ghana is like Lagos and Oyo put together. Or if we want to be modest, we say, Lagos, Oyo and Ogun. The need for develop­ment in Nigeria is very wide. If Ghana is exporting cocoa more than us, Ivory Coast taking co­coa from us, Ghana taking yam, if we don’t take time, they will lead us in cassava, lead us in ev­erything. We must have compar­ative advantage. We have to look at our packaging. Government has a leading role to play in busi­ness sustainability. Export is a serious business that deserves more government attention”, he noted.

Aniemu lamented that the Ni­gerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) is not doing enough, argu­ing that the impact of the agency is not being felt in the maritime sector.

“It is an absentee organisa­tion. Meanwhile, the maritime environment is where you make your highest level of export be­cause what a ship can carry in terms of export, you may need 500 aircraft or airplanes to carry that same quantity. The NEPC is absent in the ports where their present is most needed but seated in air-condition offices in Abuja. They need to be on ground and encourage exporters.”

Also commenting, Anefi Mo­hammed, an international freight forwarder, averred that Nigeria is exporting more from the mar­itime space, but that the govern­ment agency in-charge of export is not also on ground.

Mohammed, the Vice Chair­man, International Freight For­warders Association (IFFA), Port and Terminal Multipurpose Ser­vices (PTML) chapter, queried, “Have you seen the NEPC on the ground? Have you seen them do­ing stakeholders’ meetings? Even when they do, you don’t see them do it near the port environment. To the extent that during the era of port congestion in Apapa, ex­port cargoes will stay on the road for days. It is the exporters them­selves that will be fighting their battle. The private-sector export­ers themselves are the ones fight­ing their battles. Nigeria Export Promotion Council will never come to say please, bear with us, police, road safety, LASTMA help us clear the roads because the ex­port containers need to pass. We did not see them”, he said.

Mohammed said their ab­sence affected exporters, pointing out that exporters are still strug­gling and that it will be easier for them if they see the government agency whose duty it is promote export on ground.

“There is what we call the do­mestic export warehouse. This is promoted by NEPC. Most of these concepts by government, we only see it on papers. You will see that any government container that is moving, once it goes through domestic warehouse, it will not be re-examined or delayed. Fine, there is implementation in that direction, but the question you ask yourself is, the government agency –NEPC, are they on the ground to ensure that things work the way they are planned? It is the exporters themselves that struggle their way. The NEPC is not on ground. The growth we are seeing in export is the com­mitment of the private-sector practitioners. NEPC support is very slow, very minimal and as Nigeria gears up to participate very well in the AfCTA, export is one of the sectors that Nigeria will take advantage of.”