freight and shipping in nigeria ports

Freight and carriage of goods and cargo takes place to, from and within Nigeria via air, land and sea. The two main forms of freight shipping are road and sea: road freight accounted for 53.9{d16e1cbdc969a9d26d90c1bf8d4e75f256395f248174773e0741469b39b615ab} of the total Nigerian freight market, while sea freight made up 45.9{d16e1cbdc969a9d26d90c1bf8d4e75f256395f248174773e0741469b39b615ab} of the market in 2009.

The Nigerian Ports Authority controls eight ports. The Port of Apapa Quay, located to the west of Lagos Island, is the country’s largest port and the main outlet for handling exports. It has six berths and a total quay length of 950 metres. Appa successfully berthed the Mearsk container vessel, Mearsk Conakry, in 2011 which was the largest seagoing vessel ever berthed in a Nigerian port.

The Port of Onne complex contains 750 metres of quay and three berths, but there is room for expansion. Based on trade statistics the main destinations of Nigerian goods and sources of goods to Nigeria are United States, the EU, India, China and Brazil (2010).  Nigerian and Chinese air and sea freight bilateral trade was worth US$151,570,000 in 2009. This is expected to be the fastest growing bilateral trade relationship by 2030, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers (2011).

There are many companies in the freight and carriage sector providing shipping, clearing, forwarding and stevedoring services. Depending on the source, there are over 150 freight forwarding and logistics companies, with major global logistics firms, such as DHL, UPS and FedEx present in Nigeria; FedEx operate through a local company called Red Star Express. Consultancy services are offered by the Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology to public and private transport and logistics organisations.