Industry Stakeholders Score Nigeria Smart Ports Initiative Low

…As JournalNG Townhall Meeting Identifies Drawbacks, Proffer Solutions

BY KESIENNA SHEPHERDS

Nigeria’s Smart Ports Initiative has been rated poorly by maritime stakeholders, who say the country is lagging behind regional peers due to inefficiencies, policy gaps, and lack of coordinated implementation.

This was the consensus at the 6th edition of the JournalNG Port Industry Townhall Meeting held in Apapa, Lagos with the  theme “Towards a Regime of Smart Ports in Nigeria.”

Firing the first salvo, Rear Admiral Thaddeus Udofia (Rtd.), Director General of the International Maritime Institute of Nigeria (IMION), represented by Captain David Ajiboye, urged the federal government to develop a national smart port strategy. He warned that delays in digital transformation are inflating logistics costs and weakening Nigeria’s trade competitiveness.

Udofia noted that congestion, manual cargo clearance, and fragmented agency operations have raised logistics costs by up to 40 percent, stressing that smart ports could cut costs by 25 percent and improve efficiency by 30 percent. He called for harmonised regulations, elimination of duplication among agencies, and pilot projects at strategic locations such as Lekki Deep Sea Port.

He pledged IMION’s support through capacity building, policy advocacy, and implementation research, adding that workforce retraining is essential for a technology‑driven maritime future.

This is even other stakeholders present at the event reinforced the urgency of policy direction and the essential reforms necessary to create a smart port enabling environment.

Chairman of the townhall engagement and Head of Research, Seaport Empowerment Research Centre (SERECT), Fwrdr. Eugene Nweke lamented that smaller neighbours like Togo and Ghana already operate real‑time, data‑driven port systems while Nigeria struggles with inefficiencies.

Speaking in the same vein, Captain Sunday Umoren, Executive Secretary of Abuja MoU, represented by Engr. Owolabi, urged stakeholders to be more responsive to smart port adoption.

Presenter of the event’s lead paper, Mr. Kingsley Igwe, Executive Secretary of CRFFN, decried inadequate ICT infrastructure, poor funding, and weak capacity development, estimating that inefficiencies cost Nigeria ₦2.5 billion daily. He argued that smart ports could reduce trade costs by up to 48 percent.

Also speaking, Captain Ebubeogwu Iheanacho, a retired mariner, warned that the National Single Window (NSW) project may remain unattainable unless pursued without political sentiments. He criticized the absence of a National Transport Policy, describing existing subsectoral frameworks as “patch work with no depth.”

Convener of the townhall meeting and Publisher of JournalNG, Mr. Ismail Aniemu described smart ports as the future of global maritime operations, driven by robotics, artificial intelligence, and automation.

He dismissed fears of job losses, insisting that automation would create new specialized roles. “If we migrate to a smart port system, it will create more jobs for smart people,” he said.

Aniemu highlighted that Nigeria already has the foundation for a 24‑hour port system, pointing to round‑the‑clock banking transactions as proof that agencies like the Customs, NDLEA, and NAFDAC could adopt shift operations to accelerate cargo clearance.

The townhall ended with a strong call for urgent reforms to reposition Nigeria’s ports as efficient, technology‑driven gateways to global trade. Stakeholders agreed that without a coordinated national strategy, Nigeria risks losing competitiveness to regional peers whose ports are already digitally advanced.

The future of Nigeria’s economy, they stressed, is inseparably tied to the future of its ports.