Nigerian Ports can generate 20 percent of Nigeria’s GDP–Apampa

Segun Oladipupo |

If properly managed, Nigerian Ports can generate about twenty percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product ((GDP).
Mr. Soji Apampa, CEO, Convention on Business Integrity (CBi) Nigeria said this while chatting with our correspondent on the side-line of the Round Table Session on Service Delivery at the Nigerian Ports held in Lagos on Tuesday. Apampa, making reference to a survey carried out by a shipping institute in 2018 in Nigeria, quipped that if the throughput of cargo through the sea port could increase by five or ten percent, it could generate 20 percent of the country’s GDP

“One of our panelists actually mentioned that there was survey by a shipping institute in Nigeria which said that if we are able to increase throughput by as low as 5 to 10 percent, we can increase our GDP by 20 percent.”

While admitting that there are infrastructural shortfalls in the port, he maintained that it was not the only factor responsible for not making the port effective and efficient.

According to him, improving communication and ensuring that the communication will lead to behavioral change, which in turn will lead to port efficiency.

“The essence is to find out how we can make our ports more effective and efficient given the fact that we gave some structural and infrastructural choke points but they are not the only reasons why the ports are not effective and efficient.

“So, today was all about looking holistically at the challenge and identify what we should be doing, manly, improving communications, ensuring that those communications will lead in the end to behavioral change

“Secondly it is about having a compliance cadre in each of the agencies so that there can be consequence management if people are not living up to those standards of procedures.

“Then business feel. They need some protections and so to enjoin business to join together and have one voice as business action against corruption.

“To take pronouncement together with outcome of this meeting through the Vice President’s office so that they could make a pronouncement on which agency should lead on the issue of implementation of Standard Operating Procedure so that we can have one point of accountability and we can just lay down to rest.