Efficiency and productivity of Nigerian seaports in the pre and post concessioning periods

Seaports pose as important connectors of value chains in the international trade of nations, therefore operational port efficiency is a critical contributor to a nation’s international competitiveness. In order to support trade-oriented economic development, port authorities have increasingly been under pressure from stakeholders to improve port operational efficiency by ensuring port services are provided on an internationally competitive basis. The main objective of port concessioning and/or deregulation policies is enhancing greater port operational efficiency by engendering a more competitive market and commercial approach to management. This paper uses Stochastic Frontier Production and inefficiency models to evaluate the port efficiency and productivity of the major Nigerian seaports using panel data from 2000 to 2017 which covers the pre and post concessioning periods. The results show improvements in the average efficiency of the ports from about 51% (pre-concession) to about 60% (post-concession). There were improvements in cargo throughput, turnaround time and cargo handling equipment. Albeit these improvements, there are still challenges of dearth of skilled manpower, inadequate infrastructure, congestion, operational bottlenecks etc. It is therefore important the government and stakeholders in the maritime sector collaborate to evolve policies through regulations, guidelines and legislation to achieve efficient, effective and competitive ports to attain desired economic growth.