Performance Evaluation Of Nigerian Ports' Terminal Operations. Logistics And Transport (1961-2017)

Seminar paper from the year 2020 in the subject Business economics - Market research, grade: 4.5, , course: Maritime Science // Maritime Transport, language: English, abstract: This paper x-rayed the performance of the Nigerian ports at terminal operations vis-à-vis logistics/transport activities from 1961-2017. The data on cargo movement were derived from the Nigerian Port Authority Annual Reports. The study relied on descriptive statistics, trend analysis, regression analysis of ordinary least square estimate and port performance indicators such as awaiting berth, at-berth, berth occupancy and throughput in explaining the trend of port performance for the periods under review.

The trend analysis employed to explain the trend of cargo movements in all the ports in Nigeria was the Quarterly Moving Averages. It was revealed that the trend of cargo throughput in Nigeria is determined by the inward cargo movement. The analysis also revealed a fluctuation in cargo movement from 1961 to 2005 while the cargo throughput continues to increase unabated from 2006 to 2017. The concession of the port must have been responsible for this upward movement in cargo trend. There was a remarkable increase in inward and outward cargo movement during the post concession era in comparison to the pre-concession era.

Conclusively the performance evaluation has revealed that there is no significant relationship between awaiting berth (as a performance indicator in Nigerian ports) and the real gross domestic products in Nigeria; there is no significant relationship between the at-berth (as a performance indicator in Nigerian ports) and the real gross domestic products in Nigeria, there is no significant relationship between the effect of berth occupancy (as a performance indicator in Nigerian ports) and the real gross domestic products in Nigeria and there is no significant relationship between the throughput (as a performance indicator in Nigerian ports) and the real gross domestic products in Nigeria from 2000 to 2017. This paper recommends that government encourages public ownership and private sector operations of the port infrastructure in Nigeria so that the ports can perform optimally.