Maritime stakeholders have demanded that port modernisation must be measured by improvements in cargo movement, vessel turnaround time, logistics costs and export capacity, rather than money spent on infrastructure.
This is even as they said that Nigeria can only emerge as the leading maritime and trade gateway in West and Central Africa if it modernises its ports end-to-end, integrating infrastructure, digitalisation, regulation, security and efficient connections to the hinterland.
These stakeholders made these demands in Lagos at the 2026 Annual Maritime Lecture of the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria, where concerns over port costs, congestion, cargo evacuation and the competitiveness of Nigerian ports dominated discussions.
In her keynote address, the former Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Hadiza Usman, said, “Port modernisation must be measured by improvements in cargo movement, vessel turnaround time, logistics costs and export capacity, rather than money spent on infrastructure.”
Usman, who is currently the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Coordination, identified infrastructure and operational models, modern equipment, digitalisation, institutional reform, human capital and commercial modernisation as six critical dimensions of port transformation.
Usman said Nigeria’s seaports handle more than four-fifths of the country’s physical imports and exports, making their efficiency critical to the wider economy.
She warned that high port costs ultimately increase the prices of goods and raw materials while adding to business and exchange-rate pressures.